


Heaven's Arrow

by unimportantUsername



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Kris & Susie focus, Male Kris (Deltarune), Slice of Life, Small Towns, Undertale Spoilers, dark themes, episodic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2020-02-28 13:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 99,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18757444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unimportantUsername/pseuds/unimportantUsername
Summary: A strange twist of fate brings a human and a monster together for a bizarre adventure.





	1. An Unannounced beginning

Kris hated when the clock was broken. It was one thing to have to sit in the same chair for hours, but not being able to tell how close it was to being over made it that much worse. It didn't help that Alphys apparently didn't know how to get the projector working.

He surveyed the class as he often did to stave off boredom. Everyone was normal...except for the fact that the purple dragon...dinosaur...lizard? He couldn't decide which she was more like. Either way, she was way later than usual for whatever reason. Not that it was much of a surprise to him.

Alphys didn't look like she was going to get the projector started anytime soon, so Kris took the opportunity to step out of the classroom for a bathroom break. Any excuse at all to stretch his legs was welcome at this point.

As he stepped out into the hallways, he heard a crunching and chewing sound. Turning his head towards it, he saw Susie - that was the name of the purple lizard...whatever she was, now that he thought about it - standing just outside the classroom door and eating what looked like chalk.

As soon as she noticed Kris standing there with a perplexed look on his face, she hastily swallowed the chalk and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"What do you think you're doing out here?" She growled as she bared her extremely sharp looking teeth, which looked no worse for the wear despite her now obvious habit of chewing on chalk.

"I didn't realize you got promoted to hall monitor all of a sudden." Kris replied in the most monotone voice he could muster.

That was not the answer she was looking for, as she responded by shoving Kris roughly against a locker. The impact didn't hurt much, but it was enough to make him consider using his ability to take that comment back.

"If you tell anyone about what you saw me doing, I'll eat your face off. Got it?"

Kris simply nodded his head up and down slowly. The temptation to make another snarky remark might get him hurt if he opened his mouth again. He liked his face and wanted to keep it, even if Susie might not have been serious about eating his face, it was a risk he didn't feel like taking.

Thankfully that seemed to satisfy her for the time being, and she dropped him onto his feet before striding into the classroom while adding to her threat. "I know a bit about your mom. She seems like a nice person. It'd be a shame to have to make her bury her son."

Kris for his part was not satisfied with merely escaping the encounter with his face intact, so as he headed back into the classroom he plotted his revenge. Nothing too drastic or hurtful, but enough to make her regret messing with him.

He fought to keep a smirk off his face as he sat back down and thought about how he was going to use the next week to drive her absolutely nuts. One of the benefits of having his ability was that you could move and "misplace" things without people seeing you do it. He'd always wanted to see how someone would hold up if things kept finding themselves mysteriously shifted around or lost, and there was no better time to start than now.

Alphys finally got the projector on and began her presentation. Kris payed her no mind, however, as his gaze was fixed on the backpack that Susie left lying next to her desk. With an instinct that felt as natural as breathing, he invoked his ability. A Shimmering blue humanoid figure, just a little taller than Kris himself, appeared above him. The figure would seem to be clad in shining armor to anyone who could see it, but Kris was certain that nobody but himself could. After all, nobody but Asgore had been able to see his "stand" as his father had put it, so what were the odds that anyone in the class could see it?

With this in mind, he maneuvered his stand over to the purple terror's backpack and reached its hand out to open it slowly. As he did, he noticed something was wrong. Susie's eyes were...following his stand? That couldn't be possible, could it?

All of sudden, a towering red shadow appeared right above Kris' own stand. The shadow seemed to be taking on the shape of a tall, muscular, bull-like figure in a long leather jacket and a large tomahawk in each hand.

Before Kris could process what was going on, the shadow slammed its foot down onto the hand of Kris' stand that was reaching for the backpack. Immediately upon impact, there was a loud crunching sound as Kris' wrist bent at an unnatural angle.  
  
"Yep, definitely broken." He muttered to himself as he noticed the worried looks from his classmates. Susie, for her part, wore an expression of shock and what looked to Kris like regret.

Kris decided that he was not going to try and explain the broken wrist to Toriel that day, or deal with the pain that was just now making itself known. With a sigh, he invoked his stands ability. The events of the past few seconds began to play in reverse and slow motion as time rewound itself by just a few seconds, stopping right before the shadow manifested. This time he was ready for it, and pulled his stands hand back towards him as the shadow's foot came downwards. Instead of the sound of bones crunching, there was only a loud thud as the hoofed foot landed on the ground, cracking the classroom floor a little.

The loud sound drew some stares from the class, Alphys included, but nobody dared to ask about it considering that it came from Susie's general direction.

The shadow faded out of existence as Susie glared daggers at Kris, who returned the favor. It was Just his luck that she'd have the same power as him. Withdrawing his stand, he turned his attention back to Alphys, who was nervously beginning her presentation.

  
The rest of the school day passed by uneventfully, and Kris hastily made his way off of the school grounds while doing his best to avoid Susie on the way out. After a day like this, he REALLY needed his Azzie time.

 

Asriel was somewhat of an oddball. He had just moved into town one day out of the blue. He bought an old manor on the outskirts of the town and rarely left it. When he did decide to leave the comfort of his home, he was genial and happy to engage in idle conversation with whoever wanted some of his time. Kris had gotten along with him well, and after a while had just taken to coming over to his place for tea after school.

Today especially was no exception, and Kris actually felt some relief upon knocking on Asriel's door. He felt even more when Asriel actually answered, his tall and muscular form clad in a casual tanktop and sweatpants.

"Rough day, huh?" He asked, his voice indicating to Kris that he could already tell what kind of day he had.

"How could you tell?" Kris replied, legitimately curious how Asriel could tell. He always did his best to make his face a mask so that the habit would stick at school.

"You relax when you come around here, you know. Besides, I've learned to read you. No matter how stoic you try to be." Asriel replied with a smile as he walked inside to pour the tea he always had ready for Kris' visits. "So why don't you tell uncle Azzie what happened, huh?"  
  
Asriel referring to himself as "Uncle Azzie" always made Kris chuckle a little. Despite acting only as old as Kris was sometimes, Asriel loved to joke about being more mature.

"I met another stand user." Kris replied as he followed Asriel in, closing the door behind him.

"Stand users attract other stand users." Asriel said in reply. "I've told you this before. Why are you surprised about it now?"

"It's the purple terror." Kris said with a sigh. "And she knows I have one too."

"By ''purple terror'' you mean that girl that looks scary but doesn't really do much else? And did you forget what I said about your stand being like your dick? You're only supposed to whip it out if you really need it."

"I really hate that comparison." Kris shot back as he took a seat at the table of the spacious dining room. "And I didn't show it off. I was going to use it to get back at her for making my life flash before my eyes."

"What's her stand like?" Asriel sat down next to Kris as he asked his question, pouring the both of them some tea.

"Humanoid shape, like you said most of them are. Big, tall, and broke my wrist by stepping on it. I think she doesn't know her own strength, that or she didn't know that damage to a stand transfers to the user too." Kris winced in between sips of his tea as he recalled the feeling of his wrist breaking under the weight of the stands foot.

"Sounds to me like it's something you shouldn't fight if you don't have to. Rewinding time will only get you so far. Speaking of which, how many seconds are you up to now?" Asriel eyed him expectantly. He always enjoyed hearing about Kris' progress with his skill. At first he had only been able to rewind one second every hour, but as he practiced with it he decreased both the cooldown and increased how long he could rewind.

"Five seconds every fifteen minutes on a good day." Kris replied proudly. "I haven't had a broken bone or a scraped knee in ages because of that ability."

"Just make sure you don't get careless because of it. Or rely on it in a fight for that matter. Not that I think you'll be getting into a fight anytime soon." He hastily added. "You've always been good at avoiding those." Asriel's voice was tinted with concern. Something that Kris heard all too often when they discussed his stand.

"I'll just avoid Susie like I usually do. It's not like she's excited about interacting with me either."

Asriel groaned a little at the comment. "Come on, Kris. Don't you think it's time you made some friends at school? I don't mean to sound like your parents or anything, but I'm your only close friend and I'm twice your age. Even if I don't act like it sometimes."  
  
  
Now Asriel had really lost him. The whole "befriending the bully" thing only happened in movies. "So you think I should try and make friends with someone who would probably rather throw me off a roof than talk with me for five minutes?"

"I don't think she's as bad as you think. Everyone has a reason for acting like they do. Besides, you both have stands. So you have something in common already." Asriel punctuated the last comment with a pleased chuckle. His bad habit of laughing at his own jokes was almost funny in of itself.

"Do you want me to get my face eaten? I'm already on thin ice because I saw her eating chalk."

"Would you just try it? For me? You can always rewind time if you REALLY screw up, after all."

Kris gave a defeated sigh in response. Asriel could really be convincing when he wanted to be. "Fine. But only once tomorrow. If it doesn't work out I'll just leave her alone from then on."

Asriel patted him gently on the back. "Attaboy. It's also generally a good rule of thumb to try to be on good terms with your fellow stand users. Especially ones that can kick your ass."

Kris chose not to acknowledge the last comment, and they turned the conversation to more casual matters for the rest of the visit. Once the tea was all gone, he bade Asriel farewell and headed home.

Home this week was with Toriel, who was as affectionate as ever. But Kris didn't see the point in telling her about the stuff that had gone on that day. It would only worry her.

The next day he found himself a little anxious to actually go to school. As much as he wouldn't admit it to Asriel, Susie's stand scared him a little. Nevertheless, he walked into Alphys' classroom determined to try and make good on his promise to Asriel.

Susie was reclining in her chair, not even bothering to pay attention to Alphys. She gave Kris a nasty look as he entered, but went back to looking out the window before long.

He breathed a sigh of relief internally when Alphys announced that they were having a class project that day. This was going to make it a lot easier to approach the purple menace.  
  
Everyone else quickly paired up into groups, and within a few minutes Susie and Kris were the only ones with no groups. This was the time. Before Alphys could assign him a group, he stood up and announced: "I'm pairing up with Susie."

The entire class gave him looks that varied from "What are you doing?" to "You poor, poor idiot." Susie's expression was pure confusion, for once with no hint of anger of ill will. That was a good sign.

Alphys hesitantly assented to his request when Susie didn't raise any objection, and Kris carefully took a seat next to his new partner.

"What the fuck are you thinking?" She whispered harshly. "I was planning to just wait this out and do my project myself like I always do. But NO, you fucked that up too!"

"Woah there, calm down." Kris whispered back. "I'm not interested in actually doing the project with you. You can do it all yourself if you like. I'm more interested in your...ability."

"You mean Rude Buster?" Susie replied with a grin. "Almost got you by surprise there, huh?"

"What, you named yours?" Kris asked in disbelief.

"You didn't? Isn't that mandatory if you have a cool ability?" Susie's expression had softened considerably, and was more enthusiastic than confused now.

It seemed to Kris that she was legitimately happy to find someone with the same ability she had. He guessed it felt like being part of an exclusive club or something. He still thought naming your stand was dumb, but he didn't want to tell her that.

"So, when did you figure out you had it? I've had mine since I was a young kid."

"Just a few days ago." It was Kris' turn to look confused now. What she said next didn't serve to lessen that either. "I got hit in the shoulder with an arrow while I was skipping a class. The wound didn't really hurt that bad, but for some reason I passed out anyway. When I woke up the arrow and the wound were gone, and I just found that I could conjure up that shadow thing at will."

This was the weirdest thing Kris had heard in a long time, but he didn't have a reason to disbelieve it. "And...you're not worried that you got shot by an arrow?"

"Why would I be? After all, now I can smash and chop stuff up way better than I could before! Why should I be worried about that?"

Before Kris could reply, Alphys interrupted them. She had run out of chalk, and apparently it was his and Susie's job to go get it. He wasn't about to complain about being able to talk louder outside the classroom, and apparently neither was Susie. the two of them left the classroom and made their way toward the storage closet, still discussing the arrow incident.

"You realize that if someone shot you with that arrow and knew it would give you that ability, they might have a reason for doing it? One that doesn't coincide with your best interests?"  
  
Susie gave him a look like he had just said water wasn't wet. "Why would I care? It's not a problem yet. I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it. And why do you care anyway? I bet you're just jealous that my ability's stronger than yours."

"We haven't had a good chance to test who's stronger." Kris pointed out. "You didn't actually hit me, if you remember."

Susie growled at him in response. "We can test that whenever you feel like getting a broken nose."

The two of them arrived at the supply closet, which sat open, yet almost unnaturally dark inside.

"Geez, someone forgot to leave the light on." Susie said, sounding annoyed at what Kris felt was just a slight inconvenience. "I fucking swear, the entire staff spends half the day goofing off or something. How are you supposed to even see the-"

As Susie took a step into the darkness, her voice suddenly cut off. Kris stopped right at the edge of the void she had vanished into and called for her twice with no response.

Kris weighed his options. Either she was playing a prank on him, which was entirely possible, or something was seriously wrong here. He decided to test the darkness by having his stand reach into it.

As soon as his stand's hand touched the spot where the lights of the hallways turned into pitch black, he felt himself being pulled into that void by an overwhelming force. Before his head entered the dark, he turned back time to just before he touched the black void and sighed in relief. He may have promised Asriel he'd try and be on good terms with Susie, but he certainly didn't plan on possibly dying for her.

He turned around to leave, and suddenly felt an iron grip on his leg. Turning around, he saw what looked like a plate armored hand reaching out of the blackness and wrapping around his ankle.

Before he could move his stand to attack the hand, it pulled him backwards into the shadows, letting go as soon his body had touched the blackness. This time, with his rewind ability used up, he could do nothing to stop himself from following Susie into the storage closet.

<\-- To be Continued


	2. The Knight and the Prince

The first thing that Kris noticed when he woke up was that he had been unconscious. He didn't remember getting knocked out, but the headache told him that it must have happened at some point.

As he slowly got up from the cold, rocky floor, he realized that he was definitely not in the school anymore. His surroundings were made of grey-ish blue stone and the sky, if you he could even call it that, was pitch black. Despite the darkness of the surroundings, ambient light allowed him to see well enough to navigate.

From what he could discern he was on top of a tall plateau, and he couldn't see the bottom of the sheer cliffs. He decided to just walk along the plateau and hope to find someone, preferably Susie. If there was anything she was probably good at. it was looking scary, and he could use someone who looked scary right about now. He was sure that something had dragged him in here. What he didn't know was what for, and a part of him thought he didn't want to find out.

After a while of wandering the lonely cliffs, he heard the sound of something squelching, followed by loud grunting and snarling. In the best case scenario, that was Susie, Kris thought. He really didn't want to consider the other possibilities, so he assumed it was Susie and headed in the general direction of the sounds.

Luckily it was, in fact, Susie. Her stand was busy hacking away at a cluster of some odd wobbly creatures, though Kris could really make out their actual shapes with how fast Suise was eviscerating them. She looked like she was having fun, so Kris decided not to interrupt her.

It was kind of unnerving to watch her fight. Her shock at actually breaking his wrist in the classroom had made Kris think that she didn't actually WANT to hurt anyone, but he was beginning to think he was wrong about that. Although it might just be because she didn't see what she was fighting now as people, which they might not be for all Kris knew. Either way, she seemed to be enjoying it a little too much for Kris's tastes.

He didn't have to watch for long, as she finished her work and withdrew her stand just a few seconds after Kris arrived. "How long were you watching?" She asked, with a proud grin on her face. "Still think you could take me in a fight?"

"Just a minute or so, and beating you isn't exactly the first thing on my mind at the moment. I think we have bigger problems." It was only now that Kris actually noticed her sudden change of attire. Instead of the torn jeans and simple top that she wore to school, Susie was clad in clothes that seemed more suited for a rockstar. Kris couldn't say that he didn't like it. In fact, it suited her quite a bit.

"What's with the weird getup?" Susie suddenly asked, breaking Kris from his contemplation of Susie's own sudden wardrobe change. "Your skin changed color too."

It hadn't actually occurred to Kris to give himself a once over yet, and with everything else that was happening he somehow failed to notice that his skin had indeed taken on a blueish tint and his normal clothes were replaced with silver armor on his upper torso and shoulders, while below that it looked like he was wearing something like a skintight suit.

"Not important." He replied flatly. "Do you have any idea where we are? Or what those things you were attacking were, for that matter."

Susie gave their surroundings a once over before shaking her head. "Those things attacked me first, I was just responding in kind...Wait a minute, did you bring us here? Is this part of your ability or something?" A hint of suspicion and hostility started to build in her voice.

"I swear I have no idea where we are." Kris told her, trying to quell her suspicions before they caused any problems. Whether either of them liked it or not, they'd probably need each other. At least until they figured out where they were. All he had to do was make Susie understand that.

Susie took a few steps closer to him. "Is this some kind of revenge for what happened yesterday? Because if it is, following me down here was a mistake."

"Exactly. If I sent you down here I wouldn't be dumb enough to follow you down. Hopefully I don't come off as that stupid." Kris couldn't exactly blame her for being suspicious, but at the same time she was wasting their time with it.

"If you didn't bring us here, what did?" Susie growled.

Before Kris could reply, a deep booming voice echoed across the plateau. "I brought you here. To the Dark world... and your graves!"

Both Kris and Susie quickly turned to face the sound, which seemed to be coming from a suit of armor that was slowly emerging from the ground. In one hand it wielded a long, shining sword, and in the other held a similarly shining buckler shield. There seemed to be nothing actually wearing the armor, as even the open bascinet revealed no face or eyes.

"Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you?" Kris quipped, which was really the only thing he could think to do at this point.

"The two of you have barely begun to realize your potential." The armor began with a patronizing tone. "and it almost pains me to kill you before you have a chance to give me a real fight. Now call out your stands so you may die with dignity."

Kris' mind went racing. Who was this? And more importantly, why did he want them dead? He wanted to answer at least one of those questions before they started fighting. Susie didn't seem as interested, and had already gotten her stand out.

"Do we at least get to know why you want to kill us?" He asked quickly. "It might help with the whole, uh...dying with honor thing."

The armor continued stepping towards them as it spoke. "She must die simply because lightener stand users cannot be allowed to live. They pose too much of a threat to my subjects. As for you, well, I shall finally be free once you are dead."

The part about being free gave Kris some hope. Maybe he could get whatever it was to expand on that, maybe even use it to talk him down from the ledge, so to speak.

"Free from wh-" Before he could finish, the armor interrupted him.

"Enough talk, have at thee!" It shouted, charging at Kris with a speed that he wouldn't have believed anything could possess. He had about one second to realize that his stand wasn't fast enough to get in the way, and that he might very well be about to die.

His thought was interrupted by the loud clang of the armor's sword hitting one of Susie's axes. She had managed to get her stand over to Kris just in time stop the sword from landing between his eyes.

This did little to dissuade the armor, which turned its attention to Susie's stand and assaulted it with flurries of sword strikes that were barely visible to the eye. Susie, for her part, was defending herself admirably considering that she had gotten her stand yesterday, but Kris noticed that a strike would occasionally get through her defense, causing a cut to appear on her legs or arms as her stand took damage in similar locations.

Kris wasn't having much luck either. He tried to take advantage of the armor's focus being on Susie to try and get in some hits, but its speed meant that it could dodge him with ease without breaking its assault.

At this point Kris couldn't see a way out of this. Susie was looking worse by the second, and he didn't think there was even a point to rewinding time if he couldn't change what was happening.

Suddenly the armor flew backward as if propelled by an invisible force, landing flat on its back some meters away. Kris and Susie turned to each other with the same confused look, before looking back to see the armor slowly getting up.

"This might be the only chance we're going to get to run away." Kris said. "I really wouldn't count on that happening again."

"Where are we running to, moron? It's just a flat plateau as far as the eye can see!" Susie growled back, panting from the exhaustion of the brief fight.

Kris turned to look at the edge of the plateau, and Susie followed his gaze before turning back to him with a look of disbelief. "What if there isn't anything down there?"

"Better than what's up here!" Kris called back as he started running towards the edge.

Susie took one glance back at the rising armor before running after Kris. The two of them started sliding down the edge of plateau, their stands holding onto the side of the cliff to slow their fall.

After a few minutes of sliding down the cliff, a large town came into view with a small castle sitting in its center. None of the windows in the town showed any light, but Kris noticed a dim light on in one of the castle's towers. He only hoped that whoever was in there was friendlier than the armor on the cliff.

 

 

 

 

Susie breathed an internal sigh of relief as she reached the bottom of the cliff. Looking back up she saw no sign of the armor that had turned her legs and arms into a scratching post. Still, despite the fact that the scratches stung like anything, it was good to have a moment to compose herself.

First things first, she had to get some distance between herself and the human. Not only was that armor thing looking for him, but he wasn't much good in a fight. She was sure that if she had tried to hit the armor instead of block the sword she would have fared a lot better.

"You okay?" Kris asked. "I hope the fall didn't make your injuries any worse."

Damn it. He was annoying when he was quiet and annoying when he talked. People who pretended to care pissed her off almost as much as quiet people.

"I'm fine, and I'll be better once I find a way out of here." She replied gruffly.

"What's this "I" business? That thing's probably still looking for us, you know."

She couldn't understand how he was so calm in a situation like this. Here they had been pulled into some other world and attacked by...whatever that armor thing was, and his voice made it sound like he thought it was perfectly ordinary.

"You were holding me back in that fight. I'll do better without you." With that, she began to walk off into the town, intent on finding someone who could tell her how to leave.

"Don't be stupid." Kris said, his tone sounding more concerned than insulting. "You're still wounded. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what you did back there, but do you really think you'll last long if you run into that armor again with those wounds?"

Susie stopped in her tracks. As much as she didn't want to admit it, he probably had a point. Rude Buster had felt slower and less accurate the more wounded she got in that last fight.

"Fine." She grumbled. "You can stay with me for now, but don't think I'm doing this because I want to, freak."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Kris replied, before following her into the darkened town.

The streets seemed completely deserted, but the two of them went forward with their stands out anyway. Eventually, having found no one in the main town, they hesitantly approached the castle. The gate sat wide open, which Susie took to mean that no one was in there either.

"You sure going in there is a good idea?" Kris asked. "Maybe this place is deserted for a reason."

"If you don't like it, you can always leave." Susie growled back.

Kris just shrugged as he followed her inside. The interior of the castle was surprisingly bright, lit by some shimmering blue lanterns on the walls. The spacious and well decorated interior lent themselves to what would have been a comfortable feeling in most other circumstances.

As she turned a corner in the wain room towards a staircase, Susie suddenly stopped in her tracks as she came face to face with a short, cloaked figure. Acting purely on instinct, she lifted one of her stands axes to strike the stranger, who let out a loud squeak and jumped backwards in response.  
  
Fortunately, before she could bring her axe down, she felt Kris' hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Hold on a moment, will you? It doesn't look they're any threat."  
  
Susie shoved his hand off of her and lowered her axe. "Keep your hands off me, freak."  
  
The stranger took off their cloak to reveal a black furred creature wearing a pastel green wizard's outfit, with a pinkish scarf around their neck. This was quite possibly the least threatening thing Susie had ever seen in her life.  
  
"Sorry for scaring you. I should have given you a little warning, huh?" The stranger spoke with a clearly child-like voice, which made Susie feel a little bad for almost hitting them.  
  
"Not your fault." Kris assured him. "Mind telling us who you are?"  
  
"My name's Ralsei!" the stranger said eagerly. "I'm the prince of this kingdom. The kingdom of darkness, that is."

"If you're the prince, can you tell your subjects to stop attacking us?" Kris asked in response. "We almost got killed right after we got here."

Ralsei shuffled awkwardly in place at the question. "Well...I can't really do that. Believe me, I would if it was up to me! But a few months ago, one of the four kings conquered the other three with the help of someone called "the Knight", and has been plotting against you lighteners ever since."

Kris turned back to Susie, who had only been partially paying attention to the conversation. "You think that the armor that tried to kill us was the Knight? It would make sense if it was that king's stand or something like that."

"I don't really care." Susie grumbled back. "This conversation isn't getting us any closer to getting out of here, so it's a waste of our time."

"But wait!" Ralsei interjected. "I haven't even told you about the prophecy yet! It talks about three warriors: a monster, a human, and a prince from the dark who are destined to stop a fallen angel from returning to heaven! Those three have to be us! And that means you can't go back home yet, you need to stay down here and help us darkeners."

"So what? I couldn't care less about your dumb prophecy." Susie shot back.

Kris was quick to jump in before she could say any more. "Look Ralsei, we'll be happy to come back and fulfill your prophecy, our problem is that we need time to...uh...regroup and stuff. Think of it like the parts in stories where the hero goes and trains for a while before beating the bad guy."

"Well...the thing is...I can't really get you out of here. Only certain darkeners have the ability to make portals to your world."

"Great, so you're completely useless then." Susie growled, getting quickly fed up with the amount of time this conversation was taking.  
  
"I'm sorry..." Ralsei muttered, looking ashamed for a moment before perking back up. "I can heal those wounds though, as long as they were inflicted by someone who was angry at you."  
  
"That'd be great." Kris said. "Why do they have to be inflicted in anger though?"  
  
Ralsei shrugged. "I don't know. It's just part of my ability. Wait...you have the same kind of ability that I have, right?" He asked Kris. "I know your purple friend does, but I didn't see if you had it too."  
  
"We're not friends!" Susie hastily corrected him.  
  
"Yeah, just temporary partners because of the circumstances." Kris said in a much softer tone. "And yeah, I have that kind of ability too."  
  
Ralsei started humming happily as he gently placed one of his hands on Kris' leg. Susie watched in surprise as all the sword wounds on Kris' body started to close up, leaving behind only the scrapes he had taken in the fall. The young darkener then took his hand off of Kris and looked expectantly at Susie.  
  
As much as the wounds she had did sting, letting this insufferably nice little pipsqueak heal her would have felt somehow worse. She'd heal on her own. "Don't even think about it, hairball."  
  
Ralsei looked hurt by the comment. "Sorry...I wish I could be more help."  
  
Any further conversation was cut short by the sudden sound of a motorcycle's engine coming from outside the castle.  
  
You stay in here." Kris told a now nervous looking Ralsei. "You're the only one who can heal either of us if we get hurt, so we can't afford you being in harm's way."  
  
Ralsei simply nodded as Kris turned and headed out of the castle. Susie quickly followed after him, not wanting to miss out on the possibility of meeting something she could beat up.

Susie stepped into the courtyard a few moments after Kris did, only to be greeted to the sight of a a darkener that couldn't have been any taller than Ralsei was, wearing a spade shaped hood over his teardrop shaped head. The bicycle he was sitting on had two rocket thrusters attached to the back of it, which Susie guessed somehow were making the motorcycle noise.  
  
"Halt right there, lighteners!" The kid called out. "I am the king's son, lancer! I'm here to punish you for the crime of trespassing in the dark world, and just for generally being lighteners. Now surrender and come with me to see the Knight or face the power of my mighty steed!"  
  
Kris and Susie looked at each other with the same amused expression. It was clear that this kid had no idea what he was doing, but if he was telling the truth about being the king's son he might be useful.  
  
"Look, kid. Tell us how to get back to our world, and I'll consider not decorating your face with an axe." Susie couldn't help but smile as she said it. It felt good to not be up against something that could actually kill them.  
  
"All right, you asked for it!" Lancer shouted at them, before his bike suddenly began moving in a circle around the two of them at ludicrous speeds. However, this was really all it did. Lancer threw a magic pellet at them every now and again, but since magic didn't obey the laws of physics they were incredibly slow and easy to avoid. Even so, that bike was moving so fast that it would be dangerous to get hit by, and it was also going too fast for either of them to see a way to get past it without getting run over.  
  
"This is annoying." Susie finally said, after a good few minutes of slowly stepping out of the way of Lancer's magic attacks.

"It really is, isn't it?" Kris said flatly as he got out his phone.  
  
"What kind of reception do you think you're gonna get down here, moron?" Susie asked angrily. This was hardly the time for fucking around. What did he think he was doing?  
  
"Probably none. The stopwatch function works though."  
  
"What good's THAT going to do you?" She snapped back at him.  
  
Kris simply ignored her question for a few seconds, before putting away his phone and turning to her. "I'm going to need you to toss me."  
  
Susie finally got what he was doing. The stopwatch must have been for timing Lancer's laps around them. The problem with that plan was that neither of them knew how fast she could throw something.  
  
"Are you serious?" She asked him. "Did the fall down the cliff give you brain damage or something? You're just going to miss him and crack your head open on a wall or something!"  
  
"And you'd care if that happened?" He asked, a slight smile showing on his normally expressionless face.  
  
As much as Susie was sure this wasn't going to work, that look on his face was nothing put pure confidence. It was definitely not the look of someone who thought he might splatter his own brains out against a wall.  
  
"Nah." She smirked back at him, before positioning her stand right behind him, ready to launch him forward at a moment's notice. "You ready?"  
  
Kris watched lancer take another couple laps around them before giving the answer. "Now."  
  
With that, Susie launched him forward like a baseball. His timing was almost perfect, and he only had to make his stand kick a little to his left to knock lancer of his bike as he passed by. Then he managed to have his stand get in front of him just before he collided with a building, using it to stop his impact from breaking anything.  
  
Susie rushed over to Lancer, who was already trying to get up. Curiously, his bike had vanished after Kris knocked him to the floor.  
  
"Was that dumb little bike your ability, twerp?" Susie taunted as she firmly held him to the ground.  
  
"I...I only just got it a week ago..." He muttered back.

Kris got over to Lancer and knelt down next to him. "It's going to go a lot better for you if you just tell us how to get back to our world. I'm not sure how long I can restrain my partner here."  
  
"I swear I don't know how to go between worlds!" Lancer squeaked out.  
  
"All right, Susie. You can eat his face now."  
  
That got their captive to change his tune quickly. "Oh! I just remembered! My ability can create passages between worlds, just like my father's! I can send you home, but I need my face to do that, so pleasepleaseplease don't eat it off!"  
  
"In that case you better get opening, because I'm real hungry for faces." Susie growled at him, eager to get back to her own world. Preferably before that armor thing found them again.  
  
"Wait a minute." Kris interjected. "Let me talk to Ralsei a bit first. I want to see if I can learn a bit more about this place before we leave."  
  
"What does it matter?" Susie asked as Kris walked back towards the castle. "We're not coming back here anyway."  
  
"Just keep bicycle boy from getting away. I'll be back in a few minutes."  
  
She grumbled to herself at the delay, but decided not to leave without him. Even though he was a bit of a weirdo, they did make a good team. Not that it would last very long if she actually tried to make that work. It would be better to just ditch him as soon as they reached their world again.  
  
  
While she was waiting, she decided to try and get something useful out of their prisoner. Even if she never intended to come back down here she still had questions she wanted answered. "So, spadehead, what do you know about the knight?"  
  
"T-the knight's my father's ability. You know, like my bike and the things the two of you summoned. It takes the form of an empty suit of armor, which is honestly kind of creepy sometimes."  
  
"And why's he looking to kill us? We didn't even know this place existed before today."  
  
"My father's planning to invade your world, because great kings HAVE to conquer more places, you know? It's something out of the "How to be the best king ever" handbook! Anyway, he wants all lighteners with abilities like yours gone before he makes his move."  
  
Lancer paused for a bit before continuing in a conspiratorial tone. "You know...I bet he wouldn't mind letting you live if you joined up with him. I bet you'd be great at being one of the bad guys!"  
  
"You're dumber than you look if you think I'd trust someone who's already tried to have me killed. If he wanted me on his side he should have asked first and saved the sword for later."  
  
At that moment, Kris returned from the castle. "You ready to go? Ralsei seems pretty broken up about us not staying, but I really don't think we'd have much of a chance of helping him if we did."

"I've been ready to go for a while now." She huffed at him. "You're lucky i didn't leave your sorry butt behind."

"Why didn't you, if you were so impatient?"

Susie thought about her answer for a moment. "It's like I said. It would be shame to make your mom grieve for her child. That's all."

"Sure it was. Lancer, hurry up and open a passage for us, will you?"

Lancer nodded quickly as a bright light appeared in front of them. Susie was the first to head into it, with Kris following just behind her.

 

 

  
After a brief moment of being blinded, they opened their eyes to find themselves standing in the streets of their hometown. Susie took a deep breath of the fresh air and sighed in relief.

"Damn. Never thought I'd be so glad to see this place again. Well, I guess this is goodbye, weirdo. I'm gonna head back to school."

"Woah, wait a minute!" Kris said with a hint of alarm in his voice. "Aren't you the least bit concerned about something from the dark world coming to ours? That king Ralsei mentioned probably won't give up on killing us so easily."

"Nah." Susie replied, shrugging back at him. "I'll handle it by myself if that happens."

"Will you at least come see a friend of mine first, then?" Kris asked. "If you intend to go it alone you should at least know all the rules about your ability, and this friend of mine knows pretty much everything about them."

That did pique her interest. There couldn't be any harm in just learning a bit about her ability, right?

"Fine. Who is this friend?"

Kris started walking in the opposite direction of the school. "Just follow me. You probably wouldn't recognize his name anyway."

Susie followed him with little hesitance. She really didn't want to have any more to do with this, but something told her she might not have a choice. Besides, it couldn't hurt to learna bit more about her stand.

After a good ten minutes or so of walking, they arrived at a large, three story manor. Susie almost dropped her jaw in disbelief.

"THIS is where your friend lives?" Susie yelled at him. "You really mean to tell me that you're friends with the eccentric weirdo who lives alone out here?"

"Yep. This is it." Kris chuckled as he walked up to the door and knocked.

As they waited for the door to open, Susie wondered what she was getting herself into. Here she was about to meet the biggest weirdo in the entire town. In retrospect, going here with another, probably equally weird person who she hadn't talked to before today probably was not the safest idea.

"Hey, Kris! Little Early isn't it?" Susie heard as the door slowly opened to reveal the seven foot tall boss monster on the other side. Susie had expected him to be wearing something mysterious like a trenchcoat, but he was dressed in a simple tanktop and jeans, and his fur looked like like he had just gotten out of bed.

"Oh nice, you brought your girlfriend too." He said with a smirk as his eyes fixed on Susie.

"We're not dating!" Kris shouted quickly. "Geez, Az. We just started actually talking to each other today."

"I'm just teasing." he replied with a hearty laugh. "I'm Asriel. Nice to meet you, Susie."  
  
She already hated his guts. He had the smuggest look she'd ever seen in her life, like he'd just figured out some big secret, or taken the last piece of pizza. "How do you know my name already?"  
  
"I like to find things out about people, and this town has so many interesting people in it. Don't you think?" He gave the two a chuckle and headed inside, leaving the door open behind him.  
  
Kris didn't hesitate to follow him in, which Susie found to be very odd considering how creepy he sounded just now. Still, he might have just been joking. He didn't come off as the type of person who was particularly serious about anything. Resigning herself to the idea of a long talk with the town's chief weirdo, she followed Kris inside and took a seat at the dining table near him.

"All right, Kris." Asriel called from the kitchen, his voice suddenly taking a more serious tone. "Since you're here early I can only assume that something weird happened. Fill me in while I get tea ready, will you?"

Susie did her best to take a nap while Kris related the entirety of their unplanned trip to the dark world, including some details that Ralsei had apparently told him before they left. These were mostly about the history of the dark world, so she just tuned those out. By the end of the story, Asriel had finished the tea and brought it out to the table, along with a large plate of ham sandwiches, which he placed in front of Susie.

Kris quickly reached for a ham sandwich to go with his tea, but was quickly stopped when Asriel gently grabbed his hand with his own. "Those are all for her. She hasn't eaten since lunchtime yesterday, and I'd like her in a good mood for our little chat. Both your lives depend on it."

"How do you know when I last ate?" Susie hissed at him. He wasn't wrong, but his knowledge of her personal life was making her more uncomfortable than the dark world had in some ways.

"Well, I wondered why you got banned from free ham sandwich day, so I did a bit of digging. It didn't take me too much time find out why. Now just dig in, will you?"

Part of her didn't want to accept this, coming form him. But she was also really hungry, and the hunger won out. They were pretty good sandwiches too.

"All right." Asriel began. "Now then, from what you've told me, the armor that attacked you has to be a stand since it was able to attack your stands directly. There was obviously someone else nearby during the fight, but since they stopped it from killing you I wouldn't worry about them for now. The real questions is: who's the stand user?"

Susie quickly finished her ham sandwich to answer the question. "Lancer told me that the knight was the king's stand. He also confirmed that the armor on the plateau was the knight."  
  
Asriel took a long sip of his tea before continuing. "All right. That leaves me with one hypothesis, well, two actually. One option is that the knight is an extremely long range stand, and that the king was talking to you through him. The talk about being free once he killed Kris could mean anything, but it's what Ralsei said about the knight really being in charge that weakens that theory. Normally a stand user is in complete control of their stand."  
  
"What's the other option?" Kris asked, just having finished his tea.  
  
"Well, there's a rare type of stand known as a "automatic stand." This kind of stand is practically entirely independent from the user, to the point where any damage inflicted to the stand doesn't return to the user. Normally this is compensated by the user having no control over the stand when they're not in the same general area as it is. There does exist the remote possibility that the knight is a stand that has developed its own personality, one stronger than its user, to the point where it only requires its user to be alive for it to exist."  
  
Kris had poured a second cup of tea, but this was all but forgotten in favor of their next question. "How remote is this possibility, Az? It seems a bit out there based on what you've told me about stands."

"It's not as far fetched as it sounds." Asriel began. "Some people who develop stands don't have the mental capacity to control them. When that happens, the stand just acts on its own. There are also some stands that have a personality distinct from their user. If these two circumstances combined, the stand might practically be its own person, free from the control of its user."

Susie finished off her fifth ham sandwich before realizing the conversation was getting very boring, and decided to put a stop to it. "Look, I'm sure you two nerds think this is the coolest thing ever, but this doesn't really help me beat the knight in a fight if he comes up to this world to try and kill me."

"You mean WHEN he comes up here to try to kill you." Asriel corrected her. "And it's not useless. A lot of stand battles is knowing what kind of stand you're facing, and how their type affects their capabilities. For example, your stand is a power type judging by that Kris has told me about it, which means it can't operate more than a couple meters away from you at best. That kind of thing would be incredibly useful to know in a fight."

"Yeah, but nothing you said about the knight indicates a weakness of any kind." Susie pointed out. "So I still don't see how this is helpful."

"It means that if we can't take it on in a straight fight, which seems to be the case, the only way to defeat it is by killing the user." Kris' comment was made with a resigned tone, as if finally realizing the possibility that they might be forced to kill someone if the knight continued its attempts on their lives.

"Yeah, I think that's the most likely thing at this point." Asriel remarked solemnly. "But I think that's a long way in the future. The best thing for the two of you to do at this point is to train, grow stronger, and keep each other safe."

A smile was starting to grow on his face again, and Kris gave him a suspicious look in response.

"Which means...that you two should probably stick together as much as possible, at least at school, since that's where you were targeted. The knight probably doesn't know where you live yet, so you should be safe there for now."

Kris and Susie started each other down from across the table. At least, as much as either of them could stare at each other given how long their bangs were.

Kris was the first to break the awkward silence. "If Susie's okay with it, so am I. I think we made a good team in the dark world."

"You aren't scared of spending most of your time with the school bully?" Susie asked him back, putting on her best mocking tone.

"I'm not scared in the slightest." He replied flatly. "Because as much as you like to threaten people with having their face eaten off, you've never so much as punched one of them. And you only tried to squash my hand in the classroom because you thought you were only stomping on a ghost hand. I know THAT because the first time you tried it and succeeded, you looked shocked when my hand broke too."

The smirk had vanished right off her face. She was sure she had missed that time in the classroom. "I never hit your hand, you freak. What are you talking about?"

"As a sign of trust, I'll share my stand's ability with you. I can rewind time by five seconds, and nobody except me remembers what happened in that rewound time. I did it in the classroom the first time I was introduced to your stand because you DID break my wrist that time. I used my memory of the five seconds to dodge the blow and completely avoid having to explain that injury to my mom, who doesn't know anything about this stand business.  
I also used my ability during our scuffle with lancer. The first time you threw me, I missed him completely. But I used that experience to get an idea of how fast I would move when you launched me. Then I rewound time and used that knowledge to time your throw well enough for me to knock him off the bike."

Susie was silent for a while after Kris finished speaking. She felt a little guilty for actually breaking his hand, even if he had technically never received the injury. Besides that, even as afraid as she was that he either hated her already or would after spending enough time with her, she did have to admit that they stood a better chance of surviving if they stuck together. And maybe, just maybe, she'd make a real friend for once.

"Fine." She said stated. "If you REALLY want to be a weirdo and hang out with the toughest, meanest girl at the school, I'm not going to stop you. Just don't be surprised when you regret it after a few days."

"We'll see about that." Kris said with the conviction of someone taking a dare that they're certain of winning.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by a loud knocking at the door. Followed by a harsh voice shouting: "POLICE, OPEN UP!"

<\-- To be Continued

 

 

 

 


	3. A Brief Calm

"POLICE, OPEN UP!" Bellowed the loud voice from the outside of the door, which could only be Officer Undyne. Toriel had probably panicked when Kris had vanished from the school and promptly initiated a manhunt. He really would rather not get in trouble with his school today, and something like detention the next day could be a golden opportunity for the Knight to attack him.

Asriel slowly and calmly rose to answer the door, as if he'd both expected something like this to happen and anticipated Kris' inner reaction to it.

"Come on, we better hide in case Undyne insists on searching the place." Kris said as he headed upstairs with Susie following close behind. He then showed her into a room that seemed to be completely devoid of any furniture or decorations whatsoever.

"This is probably the worst hiding spot in the house!" Susie whisper-shouted at him. At least she had the sense not to alert Undyne to their presence. What are you thinking?"

Kris didn't bother to answer her. Instead, he walked over to the far side of the room before kneeling down and carefully grasping at a slightly broken part of a floorboard. He then slowly pulled up on it, taking with it some of the attached floorboards and creating an opening in the floor.

"Get in." Kris told her, hoping that it wouldn't be too much of a tight squeeze.

Once she had climbed down into the compartment, Kris realized that it was going to be a VERY tight squeeze indeed. Still, he wasn't about to get into trouble because of this whole stand business, so he carefully climbed in on top of Susie and put the fake floor back in place.

  
"Guess your friend didn't make these with more than one person in mind, huh?" Susie grumbled.

"Not my fault that you're huge." Kris retorted, almost without thinking about it.

"I'm huge?" She hissed back. "You're seventeen years old, just like me, and you're only five feet tall."

"Five feet, one inch." Kris corrected her.

"Fine, five feet ONE inch. My point is that I'm not huge. You're just small."

For once, Kris had no retort. He was pretty short for his age. He decided to just keep quiet and mentally adjust himself to the situation. Despite the odd circumstances, it was still the closest he'd been to another living thing in...as long as he could remember. As much as he did love his parents, he wasn't much of a hugger. He quietly resolved to fix that when he got home.

After a few minutes of waiting, Susie began to chuckle to herself. Not so loudly that someone outside the room could hear, but still audibly.

"What's so funny?" Kris asked, not certain if he wanted the answer given what their last conversation had been about.

"I'm still getting taller, you know? I'm imaging a future where I'm seven feet tall and you only manage five foot two. It's pretty funny, not gonna lie."

Don't say size doesn't matter, don't say size doesn't matter. Kris repeated the mantra to himself a few times over in his head to make SURE he wouldn't say it.

A few moments later, they heard loud footsteps coming from outside the room, followed by the sound of the door creaking open. Thankfully Susie managed to stifle her laughter at that point.

"You know officer, you can "arrest" me anytime." Kris heard Asriel's voice say from above them. "So long as you bring me to your bedroom instead of a jail cell."

Kris felt himself cringe involuntarily at that. He really hoped that Azz was just trying to distract her from her search and not actually flirting.

"Shut your trap, will you?!" Undyne shouted back at him. "I'm trying to work here, punk!"

All right, all right." Asriel chuckled. "Just hurry up, will you? I haven't had my 'me time' today."

Undyne simply grumbled something under her breath as she examined the room. The sheer emptiness of it likely seemed odd but luckily not odd enough to prompt a thorough investigation, as she left the room soon after she entered.

  
Deciding not to take any chances, they decided to wait to leave the hiding spot until Asriel told them it was safe. Mercifully, it only took another few minutes for him to do so.

"Thank the Angel." Kris said as he climbed out of the compartment. "Azz, please never subject me to listening to you flirt ever again."

"Sorry about that, Kris, I really am." Asriel replied with an awkward smile. "I was just trying to make her want to leave as soon as possible."

"Well it worked." Susie groaned as she too climbed out of the hiding spot. "It was so effective that it made ME want to leave too."

"It's probably best you do that anyway." Asriel said solemnly. "I think I can get Kris' dad to cover for him this once, but you two probably shouldn't leave school early again if you can help it."

"We didn't have any choice in that, remember?" Susie asked back.

"I know you didn't." Asriel assured her. "But the school doesn't know what a stand or a dark world is, and wouldn't believe you if you told them about it. Balancing stand related weirdness with your normal obligations is going to be one of your biggest challenges from now on. I can't really give you much advice on that since I've never had to deal with that problem myself."

"We'll manage." Kris stated flatly. "What I don't know is how you plan to get my dad to cover for me. You know he doesn't trust you."

"Yeah, but he understands stands. Pardon the pun. I think he'll be willing to call in a favor this once. It will mean that you'll need to tell him something about your little trip today, even if it's not the full truth."

"You know I don't want to get my father involved." Kris sighed.

Asriel shrugged at him. "Then you better think up something to tell him. Because you need him to get you out of trouble."

"Fine." Kris assented. "Call him. I'll go straight to his place and explain things."

The three of them descended to the first floor, where Kris and Susie retrieved their bags while Asriel gave Asgore a call to briefly explain the situation. The two didn't exchange more than a couple words before Asriel put the phone down.

"He's expecting you to be over soon, Kris." Asriel said as he hung up. "All I told him was that you had a stand related problem and needed to leave school early."

"Thanks, Azz. We'll see you tomorrow." Kris replied as he headed for the door.

"What do you mean WE'LL see him tomorrow?" Susie asked incredulously.

"You need to eat." Kris stated. If Asriel was right and her only source of food was the school lunches, that was going to be a problem. "I'm not saying that you aren't strong now, but you'll probably be better in a fight if you aren't hungry."

Susie simply grumbled in return. It was the kind of grumbling that meant she knew he was right, but wouldn't acknowledge it.

"One last thing." Asriel said, as Kris and Susie went to leave. "From now on, you both have to be on your guard when you're out and about. Most importantly, the first question you should ask when something weird happens should be: "Is this the work of an enemy stand?" Think like that, and it will be much harder for you to get caught off guard."

Kris thought it sounded out of character for his friend to talk so seriously, even about something like this. Nevertheless, it was a good point, and something he'd try to keep in mind. "Thanks for the concern, Azz. We'll watch ourselves."

The two exchanged one last friendly nod before Kris and Susie left, closing the door behind them.

"You're friend's a real freak." Susie said as they left, walking off in the direction of Asgore's house. Kris wasn't quite sure why Susie was still following him, but decided not to ask her about it for now.

"More or less of a freak than I am?" Kris asked.

"I dunno. You're both freaks in different ways, so it's hard to compare."

"Sure, and you're a completely normal person. Right?" Kris calmly shot back.

"More normal than you." She grunted . "Anyway, how far is it to your dad's anyway?"

"You're coming with me to my dad's? I thought your house was just in this general direction and that's why you were still following me."

"Weren't you listening to what your dumb friend said?" She snapped, as if not appreciating the question. "We could be attacked anytime, so we ought to stick together as much as we can."

"I'm touched that you're so worried." Kris said, glad that she was at willing to do more than the bare minimum of cooperation.

"Nah. It's not that I'm worried, freak." She growled. "It's that I have half a brain. Since nobody else can see these abilities of ours, the Knight could attack us on the streets and we'd be on our own no matter how many people were around."

There was a scary thought. One that Kris hadn't exactly considered. "Can I assume that you're going to want to walk to school together too?" He figured that was the eventual outcome of her logic, even if she hadn't thought of it yet.

"It's probably the safest thing to do." She mumbled in response.

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Kris found himself with a lot of questions about her. Most notably why she only got to eat at school, but decided that this probably wasn't the best time to ask them.

Asgore's house was a humble thing, two stories with just enough furniture inside for Asgore's and Kris' needs. The most striking thing about it was the flowering garden outside. Practically the entire yard was covered with flowers that seemed to grow in different patterns every year. Most assumed this to be due to an extraordinary green thumb, Kris knew that it was a result of his father's stand.

"This it?" Susie asked with a yawn as they arrived.

"Yeah, this is it." he answered. "You wanna follow me inside? I don't think my dad would mind."

"Nah. I'll stay out here and watch for trouble. I doubt he'd like me much anyway. Probably be angry at you for hanging out with a delinquent, too."

Kris simply shook his head slightly at her before heading inside.

Asgore was waiting for him in the living room, a concerned look on his face.

"Are you okay, Kris?" He asked, in a tone that made Kris feel almost guilty for what he intended to tell him. "Your...friend told me that you had some kind of problem that made you leave school early."

Here it was. Should he tell him the truth? What would even be the point? His father's stand wasn't made for fighting. All he would accomplish by telling the truth was putting his father in harm's way, and if something actually happened to him, Kris wasn't sure what he'd do. No, he couldn't tell him the truth, for both their sakes.

"It wasn't anything too serious." He lied. "I just rewound time a little too far and it disoriented me. For a while I couldn't remember what I was even doing at school."

Asgore nodded slowly. "And what made you push your limits like that?"

"I just..." Here he made a show of averting his gaze from his father a little, as if embarrassed. "A teacher called on me for a question and I blanked on it. Thought of the answer seven or eight seconds later and wanted to rewind."

"Hmmm..." Asgore looked deep in thought for a few moments, as if trying to decide if that was believable or not. "If I had that kind of ability when I was your age, I probably would have done things like that too." He finally said with a smile. "Just do be careful, son. "

Kris breathed an internal side of relief. He wasn't sure what he was going to say if his father hadn't believed that.

"But." Asgore continued. "Why was your first thought to go to Asriel?"

The question, innocent as it probably was, made him feel a little guilty. He didn't like that he was always more eager to go see Asriel after school than he was to go home to whichever parent he was staying with that week. It wasn't that he didn't like his parents. Quite the contrary, in fact. It was just that only having one of them around at a time was a constant reminder of the unpleasant times right before they separated.

"Like I said, I wasn't thinking straight at the time. If I had been, I would have come straight here." He assured his father.

"All right, son. Just remember that I'm always here if you need me."

"I know, dad, and I appreciate it." Kris said, "Don't forget to take care of yourself too, okay?"

"Don't worry. I'm not THAT old yet, after all." Asgore replied with a chuckle. "As much as I do enjoy extra time with you, I think your mother will be expecting you home soon."

He was probably right. The sun was starting to go down now, and he was supposed to have been home by now. Especially considering his sudden disappearance from school.

"What should I tell mom about the incident?" Kris asked, wanting to make sure he had the story straight.

"Just the truth. She'll understand. Although I think she'll be a bit more cross about it, she was NOT pleased when she found out you had an ability like mine."

Kris didn't relish the idea of telling even that story. Talk about stands upset her, and he hated seeing either of his parents upset. "All right. That's what I'll do, then. You think I'm going to get into any trouble with the school for this?"

"I don't think so." Asgore replied hopefully. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again. You've been a model student thus far, and I think the school will look the other way once your mother and I tell them what happened. Well, a version of it that doesn't mention stands, that is."

"Thanks again, dad." Kris said with relief. "I'll see you soon."

"Be safe, son." His father told him as he left the house and headed down the walk to meet up with Susie.

"Get yelled at much, freak?" She asked as they started heading toward Toriel's place.

"I don't think he's ever yelled at me in my life." Kris responded. "He just has a really stern tone when he's angry, which he wasn't."

Susie went silent for a while, making Kris feel a little awkward. He'd never had to actually hold a conversation with someone besides his parents for as long as he could remember.

To his relief, Susie eventually did break the silence. "I'll be at your house in the morning to head to school with you. What time do you usually get up, freak?"

He was surprised at the question. He hadn't expected her to want to walk him to school too. "Six in the morning." He replied calmly, the reality of just how much time he was going to be spending with Susie for the foreseeable future just starting to sink in.

"Fine. I'll be at your place by six thirty then." By this time they had arrived at Toriel's house. Kris found himself wondering if his mother would take well to seeing Susie waiting for him outside the next morning.

"All right. See you then." He told her as he headed inside.

"Don't die in your sleep, freak." She called back as she headed away to her own house.

The day was almost over. He just had to go have one talk with his mom before he could finally get some sleep. He was really thankful that Ralsei had healed his wounds, otherwise this would be really hard to explain. With a little hesitation, he opened his front door to find his mother standing right inside the doorway.

"Hey mom." He said quickly. "Did dad tell you what happened yet?"

"Yes he did, son." She began, her tone soft instead of stern like Kris had expected. "I do understand, and I feel a little silly for getting as scared about it as I did. After all, you are almost eighteen now."

"It still wasn't smart of me." He told her as he stepped indoors. "I should know better."

His mother let out a sad sounding sigh. "It's not as if you asked for that ability. Oh, how I wish you weren't burdened with it, especially if what your father said about people with your ability being drawn to each other is true."

He figured he shouldn't mention the fact that he knew it was true now. No point making her more worried.

"I wouldn't worry. I still haven't met anyone with a stand beside my dad." He assured her. If she knew what had actually happened that day she'd freak out for sure, maybe even not let him go to school. As much as he hated it, he had to lie to her too, for Susie's sake.

"Well, no point thinking about it any more, I suppose." She stated. "I've got dinner ready, so let's just enjoy the rest of the evening."

Kris nodded in agreement before sitting down at the dinner table. The conversation turned away from anything stand related, much to his relief, and dinner passed pleasantly.

At long last, he finally made it into bed after a long bath, which was made longer by him being too tired to get it done with any sort of haste.

Alone with his thoughts at last, he took a moment to reflect on the day he'd had. Overall it wasn't good. All he had ever wanted was a nice, quiet life in his hometown, and here he was with more worries or cares than he ever imagined he'd have. Still, at least he had someone to work with. As rough as Susie was, he had to admit that they worked well together in a fight. Still, she'd probably stop talking with him once this whole thing was over. After all, her social standing was bad enough without hanging around the town's ONE human. Why would she want to make herself even more of an outsider? Although she didn't seem much concerned about other people liking her, so maybe he had a chance in that regard.

Whatever she planned to do once they weren't being hunted by the Knight, Kris resolved to enjoy having a "friend" his age for once. Though he figured that he'd need to explain how they met and why they were hanging out to his parents eventually, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

At some point he fell asleep without realizing it, because the next thing he was aware of was his mother shaking him gently awake. The rigors of yesterday's experience must have made him over sleep.

"What time is it?" He groaned as he got out of bed, trying to clear away the morning grogginess.

"Six in the morning, child." She told him as she left his room.

He groaned again as he realized he didn't have too much time to spend on getting ready, especially since Susie would be waiting for him today. And tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. Dear angel, he really hoped this dark world business would be over soon.

He got out to meet Susie at exactly six thirty. She looked grumpier than she had been yesterday, but Kris attributed that to it being so early.

"Good morning." He mumbled as he approached her on the street corner.

"Nothing good about it, freak." She shot back. "Just shut up and keep an eye out for trouble. After all, that's the only reason we're doing this, right?"

Kris simply did as she asked and kept quiet, part of him hoping that she'd be more willing to talk later in the day.

The walk to school went quietly, though Kris couldn't shake the vague feeling of being watched. His unease increased when they finally got to school, where there was a strange quiet in the air.

Hoping that it was just his imagination, and that nothing annoying was going to happen today, Kris had no hesitation in walking into the school alongside Susie.

The first thing they were greeted to was the sight of the janitor lying asleep on the floor. Kris turned to Susie, about to make a comment about how odd it was, only to see her fall flat to the floor as if she had literally fallen asleep on her feet.

Moments later, he felt a sudden and intense wave of drowsiness overcome him. Now sure that this was some stand's doing, he quickly conjured his up, only to fall to his knees from the sudden exhaustion. For a moment he though about trying to rewind time back before they entered the school, but the intense drowsiness prevented him from doing even that. With no other choice, he fell asleep on the floor right next to Susie, fully expecting to never wake up.

<\-- To be continued


	4. Silent Night

For the second time that day, Kris was woken up by the feeling of someone shaking him. Susie, however, was much more rough about it then Toriel had been.

"Hey, wake up, freak!" She was screaming practically right into his ear, which served to make him jolt up almost as soon as he gained awareness.

"I'm awake, I'm awake." he mumbled as he slowly rose to his feet. "What's going on?"

"I can't call out my stand, that's what's going on!" She practically shouted the answer at him, not caring if it attracted outside attention.

In response Kris tried to summon his own stand, which to his surprise appeared at his side like normal. "Huh, works fine for me."

"What the hell?" She asked incredulously. "Why do YOU get to use your stand, but not me?"

Kris suddenly noticed something. The janitor that had been asleep on the floor when they entered the school was gone.

"No clue." He told her. "Not yet, anyway. What I do know is that this has to be the work of a stand. Knowing that, our next task needs to be to find the user."

Susie took a brief glance around the empty hallway. "Any ideas who that would be?"

Kris shook his head. "No, but I think I have an idea of what their stand ability might be. Judging from what happened to us, my theory is that it's a stand that steals other stands, and also happens to have the ability to put their users to sleep. If that's true, it can probably only steal one stand at a time, which would explain why I still have mind."

"I guess that makes sense." Susie grumbled. "You think the knight sent them?"

"If I'm right, then that would be the logical conclusion." Kris told her. "But I'm not sure if I'm correct yet. This is just a preliminary analysis."

"It also doesn't explain why the school's so quiet, or why no one noticed how we just passed out on the floor." Susie pointed out.

"Yeah, I don't get what's going on with the school either. We should probably find that out first." As troublesome as the situation was, he was finding himself glad for the opportunity to talk with Susie. Her usual belligerence seemed to fade away whenever they had an actual problem to solve.

"We should probably start in the classrooms." She suggested. "That's the only place anyone is likely to be at this time anyway."

Kris nodded back at her in agreement. "Right. Alphys' class is the closest. so let's start there."

Susie nodded back, and the two proceeded through the eerily silent hallways until they reached the door of the classroom that Alphys used for their first morning class. Cautiously opening the door, they found that most of the seats were full of sleeping students, quietly snoozing at their desks. More striking, however, was the new view from the classroom windows. They couldn't see any sky, or even any of the rest of the town when they looked out the windows, just a pitch black void.

"All right. I can't really pretend that I have any idea what's going on at this point." Kris admitted as they both gazed out the windows. "I'm not even sure it's a stand at this point."

Susie gave him an odd look. "What else would it be?"

"Dunno." Kris shrugged. "But I've never heard of a stand being able to do stuff like this before. Granted, all I know about stands comes from stories my father and Asriel told me."

"Hey, wait a minute. Where's Berdly and Noelle?" Susie asked, looking at the two empty seats where the aforementioned two would normally be siting.

"Maybe they were just late today." Kris replied, before realizing that Berdly being late was something that just never happened. "Never mind, you're right. That's weird."

"Maybe they know something about what's going on here." Susie muttered. "Honestly, if this is the work of a stand user, I hope it's Berdly just so we have an excuse to beat the shit out of him."

"Agreed." Kris said with a chuckle. "That said, we shouldn't assume that he's a stand user either. In fact, I can't actually imagine him with one."

"What do we do now, then?" Susie said, changing the subject. "You think we should try to wake anybody up?"

"They wouldn't do anything except panic. Let's just try and find someone who isn't asleep." Kris was utterly confused at this point. If someone was trying to kill them, they were doing it extremely indirectly.

"All right. I hope they know more about what's going than we do, if anyone beside us is actually awake." Susie turned to walk out of the classroom, and Kris followed.

The two wandered through the first floor for a while, only managing to find classrooms full of sleeping students and teachers. However, while passing by the stairwell to the second floor, they heard loud thudding sounds coming from up the stairs.

They didn't need to exchange any words, just one look between them before they sprinted up the stairs toward the noises.

Once they reached the second floor, Kris couldn't believe his eyes. A group of what looked like zombies straight out of a John Romero film were pounding on a janitor's closet. Oddly, despite the decaying corpses, there was no smell of rot in the air whatsoever.

"Are those...humans?" Susie asked hesitantly.

"Human corpses don't walk around like that." Kris assured her. "I...don't know what those are."

The sound of their talking clearly caught the attention of the corpses, who turned and began shambling toward them at a surprisingly quick pace.

In response, Kris took out his stand and sent it at the group of the living dead. They seemed to be aware of his stand, as they made attempts to claw at it. A simple cut to the throat would take one of the freaks of nature out of the fight however, and Kris had soon taken care of them while only taking a few minor cuts in the process.

"Damn, I really wish I had my stand right now." Susie grumbled. "That looked like fun."

"That makes two of us." Kris said after catching his breath. "Come on, let's get this door open."

Susie did the honors of pulling the door open to reveal Berdly, curled up in the fetal position in a corner of the closet. The sight filled Kris with some sense of happiness, and he was unable to suppress a smirk.

"Berdly!" Susie shouted. "Get your useless avian behind off the floor, will you?"

Susie's voice scared the monster into action, and he bolted upright off the floor and looked at Kris and Susie with a wide eyed stare.

"What's going on here, bird brain?" Susie demanded loudly. "Speak up quick or I'll make you into fried chicken!"

"I don't have any idea!" He stammered out quickly. "I just fell asleep and woke up...well, wherever this is, because it sure isn't the school!"

Kris decided he was probably telling the truth, given how alarmed he sounded. Though he still wasn't sure why Berdly was awake and everyone else wasn't, he was also fairly sure that Berdly wouldn't be able to explain that either.

Kris hoped, maybe vainly, that Berdly still might know something useful. After all, he was one of the few people still awake. "Listen, Berdly, I need you to run through everything that happened before now. Doesn't matter how trivial, we need to know everything."

Berdly seemed to have recovered from the scare a bit, and was able to give an answer that sounded a bit more like himself. "W-why should I waste my time explaining it to YOU two? What are you of all people going to do about it, exactly? Especially you, Kris, you're even dumber than the ordinary student!"

At this, Susie stalked up to him and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. "If you're not gonna tell him, then tell me." She growled. "Because I haven't gotten a chance to eat this morning."

"Fine, fine! Just don't eat me!" Berdly squeaked in response.

Susie complied and dropped him before walking back to Kris's side.

"Well, Noelle and I walked to school together today. See, we stayed over at her place to work on the group project, and we ended up staying up real late watching movies and stuff while we worked. Uhh...nothing important really happened during that time, after we got to school we sat down in the classroom, and then Noelle just fell asleep at her desk. A little bit after that, I did too, and that's all I can remember. Once I woke up, everyone else was still asleep, and Noelle was gone. I just wandered up here looking for her and then those THINGS out there chased me into this closet!"

Dang, mostly useless facts. Still, Kris thought it was interesting that Noelle fell asleep first. A new theory was starting to form in his head, but he needed more facts first. "Why did Noelle fall asleep first?"

Kris didn't really expect Berdly to know, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Oh, well, I think it was because I picked a scary movie the night before, and she hadn't been able to sleep. Before you call me a bad person for that, I didn't think it was actually scary. It was some old, cheesy zombie movie or something."

Zombie movie. Those words set off a light bulb in Kris's head. "Berdly, stay in here. We'll handle this."

Before he could object, Kris and Susie had left the closet and shut the door behind them.

"I've figured it out." Kris announced to his partner once they were back in the hallway. "We're still sleeping."

Susie looked at him in confusion. "What? How is that possible?"

"This IS the work of a stand, but I don't think that the user is actively trying to hurt us. I think that the stand user here is Noelle."

"Are you saying that Noelle spontaneously developed a stand that made everyone go to sleep or something?" Susie asked him, clearly still not getting it.

"Look, sometimes stand users aren't able to control their own stands. You remember when Asriel told us about that, right?"

"Yeah, I remember." She nodded.

"Well, can you imagine Noelle actually being able to control her stand if she had one?" Kris asked, his own theory making more sense to him the more he talked about it, "She's afraid of practically everything in some way or another."

"That doesn't explain any of this." Susie said, gesturing to the fallen zombies in the hallway.

"It explains it exactly." Kris said triumphantly. "Stands are born from the personality of their user. Noelle's stand must be trying to "protect" her from everything and everyone in the real world by pulling us all into this dream. The zombies are just here because she was probably thinking about them at the time, because of that movie she watched with Berdly!"

Susie still looked more than a little confused. "But...how'd she just up and manifest a stand suddenly? And why are the zombies here at all?"

"She must have been pierced with the same arrow that gave you yours. As for the zombies, I would suppose they're a part of her stand's "defense mechanism", drawn from her subconscious fears."

"None of this explains why I can't use my stand." Susie pointed out. "I liked your other theory better."

"I had my stand out when I fell asleep." Kris stated, realizing that it might actually be the answer to that particular mystery. "I guess you can only call out your stand in a dream if you had it out when you fell asleep. That's the only answer I can think of, at least."

"All right, freak. If you're so smart, what do we do next, huh?"

Kris thought about that for a moment. "We need to wake Noelle up. she must be in here somewhere, probably in whatever she considers to be the safest place in the school."

"And where'd that be?" Susie asked him back. "I don't exactly know her very well."

"Neither do I." Kris admitted. "But...It's probably somewhere on the third floor if I had to guess. Being as far away from the entrance would make sense if the point of this dream is to protect her from everyone else."

"So we go to the third floor, then." Susie stated, as she turned back to the stairwell, only to see that it didn't go any further up.

"Well...uh...there goes that plan." She said, sounding extremely annoyed at this turn of events.

"Let's try the other end of the hallway." Kris suggested. "Maybe there'll be another stairwell."

As they started down the hallway, one of the classroom doors they were passing suddenly opened up. This was followed by a veritable torrent of chairs flying out of the classroom at them. Kris only had a very brief moment to react before the chairs were due to hit him. His stand was going to be too slow to block them, so he instead opted to dive flat on the ground, using his stand to push Susie down with him.

Fortunately, the chairs didn't change direction to target them, and simply crashed into the wall and broke after flying harmlessly over their heads.

"Guess we're going in the right direction." Susie commented.

Kris was about to agree with her when they suddenly heard the loud groaning of the zombies from earlier behind them. The corpses had repaired themselves, and had now been joined by more.

"Yeah, probably. We'd better hurry." He said urgently, crawling forward until he was out from under the deluge of chairs before getting up and sprinting down the hall, followed closely by Susie. Looking back a few times as he went, he realized that the barrage of chairs had stopped to let the zombies through.

With a tinge of anxiety, he realized that the hallway was also much longer than it had seemed at first, and that they were going to pass another classroom door in a moment. Just like the last time, the two of them dove for the ground as soon as the door opened and the chairs began flying. It was around this time that Kris realized something else. The zombies were going to catch up at this rate. Every time they had to avoid the chairs, they sacrificed some distance. They couldn't go on like this indefinitely, but they had to try.

They repeated the pattern of avoiding the chairs for a while, until finally reaching the stairway up. Kris' heart leapt for joy. They might actually make it.

His hopes were dashed when he felt one of the zombies grab a hold of his leg. The grip was like iron, and when he turned back to cut it, he realized that more would be on him by the time he did so.

There was only one thing he could think of to do, and it was going to be really risky. He rewound time by five seconds, brining him back to right before he and Susie reached the stairs. This time, however, he stopped and turned to fight.

"Susie!" he called to his still sprinting partner, who turned to look at him with alarm. "Get up to the third floor and find Noelle. I'll keep these guys busy as long as I can"

"What if Noelle isn't even up there to begin with? Or any stand user for that matter?" She shouted back at him as he began to cut up the first of the zombies, noting with a sense of dread that they seemed harder to kill this time.

"Then I was wrong and I have no one to blame but myself. Now hurry up, will you?"

Susie wasted no further time in sprinting further up the stairs, cursing the fact that she didn't have her stand. She should be the one fighting those things, dammit! Kris was too skinny and fragile looking to be the one throwing himself in harms way.

Upon reaching the third floor, she realized she had no idea where Noelle could actually be. In fact, she didn't actually know what was on the third floor aside from the Principal's office. Oops. She probably should have told Kris that earlier. Whatever. He was counting on her now, and she couldn't afford to let him down. No way she was letting some weird stand like this cheat by taking away her stand. She would head for the Principal's office, and hope to the Angel that Noelle or whoever was behind this was in there.

As she started down the hallway, a number of fire extinguishers on the wall exploded into large clouds of smoke, which obscured her vision of the hallway completely.

Gritting her teeth and knowing there would probably be more surprises for her, she continued down the hallway as quickly as she could. After a few seconds she heard the telltale sound of one of the doors swinging wide open. Taking the cue, she dove forward as far as she could, hoping to clear the area being pelted by chairs and other various bits of furniture.

She wasn't exactly the most graceful, and the sudden lunging hurt when she hit the floor. However, she did succeed in getting past the classroom door, which allowed her to keep going to the end of the hallway.

Finally making it to the door that she thought was the Principal's office, she threw herself against the door as hard as she could, just in case it was locked. The door practically flew off its hinges, opening to reveal Noelle sitting asleep at the desk.

She looked no different than any of the other sleeping students, but her presence in the office suggested that Kris might just be right about her being the cause of this after all. All Susie had to do was wake her up.

She started by trying to shake the doe awake, really hoping that it would be as simple as all that. It didn't work. Noelle stayed dead asleep no matter how hard Susie shook her and shouted at her to wake up.

This wasn't good. She had to wake her up quick, before Kris lost the fight on the second floor, if he hadn't already. As she was thinking, she heard a door fly open in the hallway, followed by the groaning of those walking dead humans again. She didn't have much time left, and without a stand she wouldn't be able to defend herself very well if they reached her.

Susie thought as hard as she could about dreams. About what kind of things made her wake up. Suddenly, a thought came to mind. It wasn't very pleasant, but it might just work.

Susie's eyes drifted over to the window. They were on the third floor. A fall from this height would probably be fatal to someone with Noelle's build. Of course, since this was a dream, she'd have to wake up, right? Surely her stand would let her wake up to avoid harm. After all, wasn't protecting her the whole point of this weird dream scape in the first place?

Taking a deep breath to steel herself for what she was about to do, Susie picked Noelle up and lined herself up with the window. A part of her couldn't believe that she was actually about to throw Noelle out a window, but it was the only way she could think of to save Kris and herself from...whatever it was that walking human corpses did to live humans.

With a mighty heave, she threw Noelle's sleeping body through the glass and out the third story window, hoping and praying that it didn't kill her.

Suddenly, she found herself lying on the floor of the school's hallway, right next to Kris who also seemed to be just coming to. Springing to her feet, she summoned her stand, which appeared right beside her as it was supposed to. They must have woken up.

"Nice one, Susie." Kris groaned as he got up off the floor, casting a look at the nearby janitor who was doing the same. Yeah, they were definitely awake now.

"You found Noelle, I take it?" Kris asked as he finished getting to his feet.

"Yeah, had to throw her out a window to wake her up." Susie's triumphant expression turned to worry as she noticed that Kris was covered in scrapes and cuts that definitely looked like they were made by fingernails or teeth. A few of them were even bleeding visibly.

"I'm just sorry I didn't manage to find her sooner. Looks like you took a beating." She commented, mentally chiding herself for taking so long.

"Susie." Kris began, his voice sounding alarmed. "If the zombies scratching me carried over to the real world, what about a fall from a three story window?"  
  
Both Kris and Susie exchanged an "oh shit" look before sprinting to Alphys' classroom at a breakneck pace.  
  
The class was still in the process of waking up when they arrived. Thankfully, it seemed like those waking up included Noelle. Still, the two couldn't help but be worried that the fall did hurt her in some way or another, and went straight for her desk after barging into the classroom.  
  
"You okay, Noelle?" Kris panted, out of breath from the sprint and probably still feeling the effects of his fight in the dream.  
  
"Yeah..." She replied hesitantly, her eyes moving fearfully between Kris' wounds and Susie. "I'm fine. W-what about you? Looks like you took a nasty fall or something."  
  
Both Kris and Susie breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't worry about that." Kris told her. "We're just glad you're okay."  
  
It was at this point Susie realized the entire class was staring at them with baffled looks, Alphys included.  
  
"Hey!" Susie shouted at their onlookers. "What do you think you're all gawking at?"  
  
Their fear of Susie overcame their curiosity, and all heads turned to look at anywhere except Susie.  
  
"Kris, we better get those wounds looked at." Susie told her partner. She had heard that human wounds could get infected, though she wasn't sure exactly what that meant, just that it sounded bad.

"That depends." Kris replied, turning to direct his next question at Alphys. "Do we have class?"

"Uhh..." Alphys stammered and glanced at her watch. "W-well, since everyone seems to have slept through the normal class period, I guess we'll have to forgo that for today. B-besides, you really should get those cuts looked at."

"Let's go, Kris." Susie said, making for the door.

Kris wordlessly followed her out into the hallway, and the two then headed for the school Nurse's room.

"I'm touched by all this concern." He suddenly said. "I thought you wouldn't care so long as I wasn't dead or dying."

Susie was caught off guard by the comment, and struggled to find a proper answer for a little bit. "They might get infected or something, you know? And that would make it harder for you to fight if we get attacked again."

"You do know it's okay to care about people, right?" He replied, a little smile on his face. "It doesn't make you weak or anything like that."

"I just don't want you to get attached or anything like that." she grumbled back. "After all, once the Knight's dealt with we won't have a reason to work together anymore."

"Do we need a reason?" Kris asked, his features returning to their usual expression.

"We might make a good team, but teams only exist because they have a mission." Susie told him. And with that, the two returned to silence for the rest of the short walk to the school nurse.

The nurse didn't ask questions about where Kris got the wounds, most likely because of Susie's presence in the room with them. It was just beginning to dawn on her that people were going to assume SHE had given Kris those scratches. She couldn't blame them, of course. She was the sort of person who might very well do something like that, after all.

Kris' bandaging didn't take too long, and soon they were out of the nurse's office. School was also canceled for the day, and everyone who been among the masses of sleepers was given a physical checkup. Naturally, they couldn't determine what caused everyone in the school to spontaneously fall asleep. Kris and Susie got their examinations first and were promptly excused from school when they turned up nothing odd.

"Well. We've got the whole day ahead of us." Kris pointed out as he and Susie walked out the front doors of the school. "Wanna get lunch somewhere beside the school?"

Susie was confused by the offer. "Do you really want to spend any more time with me than you have to?"

Kris gave her an exasperated sigh in response. "You know you're not really all that bad, right? Besides, teams are more functional if the team members actually know each other well."

Susie stayed silent for a while before finally nodding at him. She could use some food, after all. And if he really wanted to spend more time with her that badly, she wasn't going to object. "Fine, I guess you've got a point. Where were you thinking of going?"

"I can tell you from experience that QC's diner is a great place." He told her eagerly. "No ham sandwiches, but plenty of burgers. I think you'll like it."

"The food better be good, freak, otherwise I'll eat your face instead." The levity in her threat was clear to both of them, and Kris just let out a short laugh in response.  
  
Inside, Susie felt glad that Kris had made the offer. Maybe something good could come out of all this trouble after all.

<\-- To be continued


	5. Stay Hungry

"Do you ever cut those bangs of yours?" Susie asked, looking up from her third burger of the day to address Kris.

He decided to answer her question with another question. "Do you?"

"Nah." She replied. "I don't really like having sharp bits of metal near my face. What about you, freak? Why do you not cut those dorky bangs of yours?"

He debated for a moment whether he should answer that question honestly. In the end he decided that it would be best to be as honest as possible if he wanted the same from her. "In my experience, it's made people notice me less. Made blending in a lot easier."

"You're the only human in a town full of monsters and you want to blend in?" Susie asked with a slight smile.

"Exactly." Kris replied flatly. "I just hate the idea of being the odd one out, so I just try to look as unassuming and unimportant as possible."

"Where's the fun in that?" Susie asked him. "If you're already so different. why not stand out?"

Kris sighed as he gave his reply. "I tried that...kind of. I was a real prankster when I was younger. I once hid under Noelle's bed when she made the mistake of mentioning that she was afraid of humans doing exactly that. Needless to say, it didn't make me many friends, so I just decided to try and fade into the background."

Susie hastily swallowed the last her burger. "Guess you're more fun than I thought, freak." She paused for a moment, looking thoughtful before continuing. "You know...we could get up to all kinds of shit with these stands of ours, right? After all, no one else can see them but us."

Kris had figured she's think of that eventually. Needless to say, it was an incredibly bad idea, even if it was extremely tempting. "Parading our stands around in public is really dangerous. No matter how fun it might be, we can't afford to do something like that."

Susie made a quick, dismissive hand wave in his direction. "Come on, what could happen? It'd just be a little fun."

"And what if an enemy's watching us and uses that opportunity to find something out about our stands, or even attack us? Will it still be fun then?"

"Geez." Susie groaned. "Two days in and I'm already sick of this "what if an enemy attacks us?" mentality."

"It's not a matter of if, but when." Kris said solemnly. He felt the same way about the mentality they were forced to adopt. "I can't believe that the knight's just given up."

"Me neither." Susie admitted. "Hey, speaking of stands, you think Noelle got hers the same way I got mine? I can't imagine that she's had it all her life but just happened to lose control of it today."

Kris thought about it for a moment. The implications of someone running around and shooting random people with an arrow weren't pleasant, and even less so if there was a reason behind it. "I think we have two problems on our hands. First and foremost is the direct threat: the Knight and the darkeners that work for him. The other is the person with the arrow, who's probably going to cause more problems for us by doing what they're doing, even if them giving you a stand was helpful."

"What do you think they're after?" Susie asked. "The person with the arrow, I mean."

"No idea." he answered. "But for now they can't really be our priority."

"Not like we have any leads anyway." She muttered. "Anyway, we've still got a lot of time left in the day and we can't spend all of it eating."

As much as Kris wanted to do something fun with Susie, he couldn't think of anything fun that didn't have the possibility of getting them in trouble. "Training would probably be a good use of our time. We could go a little ways into the woods around town and bust out our stands there."

Susie let out a short laugh, clearly amused by the suggestion. "You that desperate for some alone time, freak? I do like that idea though. You could certainly use the practice."

As he and Susie left the diner, Kris wondered if he had made a mistake with that suggestion. At least he could always rewind if Susie broke one of his limbs or something, though he was hoping she knew her own strength at this point.

It didn't take them long to reach the forest, though finding a good clearing to train in took a little longer.

"So...do we just kinda go at each other now?" Susie asked, sounding unsure of herself.

"I suppose so." Kris replied. "But in such a way as we learn something, and hopefully not break anything in the process. Explaining these scratches to my mom is going to be hard enough without a broken arm to go with it."

"Don't worry, freak, I'll try not to break you." Susie assured him.

With that promise, the two of them called out their stands and got down to business. Susie put away her axes, while Kris kept his sword sheathed, leaving their stands' fists as the only form of attack.

Kris was holding his own pretty fairly well for a while, finding that with focus he could make his stand as fast as Susie's. He also found that the level of focus he needed to do that became easier and easier to maintain the more he did it, and silently bemoaned the fact that he hadn't had anybody to do this with before.

This lasted for a good long while, with the two occasionally taking breaks and giving each other feedback before beginning again. Until Susie finally got bored, and made her stand lunge forward and grab hold of his without warning. Now being suspended in the air rather indignantly, Kris had no recourse when Susie took a few strides toward him with a smug grin on her face.

"Well, freak? Whatcha gonna do about that, huh?" She teased.

In response, Kris used his stand to kick the back of Rude Buster's knee hard enough to make Susie fall flat on her back, releasing Kris in surprise as she did so.

"That." He shot back calmly.

Susie grumbled as she stood up and dusted herself off. Kris wondered for a moment if he actually hurt her, but it didn't seem like he had injured anything except her pride.

"Guess I'm already rubbing off on you, huh, freak?" She said with a grin. "I won't let that happen next time, so you better think of something else before we do this again."

The mention of next time reminded Kris of something, and he quickly pulled out his phone to check the time. It was 6:00 PM, and he had 10 missed texts and 3 missed calls from his mom. That would teach him to put his phone on vibrate.

"Aw crap." He muttered, then turned back to Susie and spoke at an audible volume. "I really lost track of time. My mom's used to me being home by now. As much as I really hate to cut this short, I really need to get home soon."

"That afraid of your mom, huh?" Susie laughed.

"Absolutely." Kris replied seriously. His mom was way scarier than his dad was if she was angry about something, not that she got angry easily.

"Guess we had better head back to your place, then." Susie said, with a hint of disappointment in her voice as the two started back to town.

As they walked, Kris called his alarmed mother and assured her that he was okay, and had just stayed out a little later than usual with friends. Now of, course, he'd have to tell his mother who this friend that he had made was. His mother was painfully aware that he hadn't really had any friends up untill now, and probably wasn't hoping for Kris to make friends with the class "bully". Still, she'd just have to deal with it when he eventually told her, since he sure wasn't going to lie to her any more than he needed to.

She seemed placated by his explanation, and even told him she was glad he was having fun. He gave her a quick goodbye and an assurance that he'd be home soon before turning his attention back to Susie.

"Sorry again about cutting this short. You seemed like you were enjoying it."

"Don't worry about it." Susie mumbled back. "Better to have a mom who cares too much than one who barely pays attention to you."

Kris debated the merits of asking her to elaborate on that comment. He already knew that she wasn't getting food at home, and now he was starting to understand why. Still, he couldn't think up a tactful way to ask about the subject, so he decided to let it be for now.

The walk back to Kris' house was spent mostly in silence, with both them either being unwilling or unable to think of anything to say. When they finally reached their destination, Susie bade him goodnight and headed off towards her own house.

Stepping into his house, Kris was greeted by his mother, who seemed to have calmed down quite a bit since Kris called her. In fact, she seemed happier than usual.

"Hello, Kris!" she said excitedly. "I'm so glad to hear you finally made a friend at school! Do you mind if I ask who they are?"

Kris groaned internally, but made sure to show any outward sign of distress. She really wasn't going to like his answer, but he had to give it nonetheless.

"Susie." He told her, opting for a one word response.

His mother's look changed from happy to concerned, as her eyes wandered over Kris' many bandages.

"Kris...she didn't give you those, did she?" She seemed to be choosing to ignore the fact that Kris had just told her that Susie was his friend. Much to Kris' annoyance. His dad wouldn't be giving him this business.

"No, mom." He replied calmly. "I just told you that she's my friend, remember?"

Toriel went quiet for a moment, seemingly considering something. "So, Kris, she didn't do anything to pressure you into being her "friend" or anything like that?"

"No, mom." Kris assured her, already becoming tired of this line of questioning.

"Then...how DID you get all those wounds?" She asked, her tone still worried.

"I...tripped." He told her, taking a moment to think up an explanation. "Down a lot of stairs."

She gave him a look back that told him she wasn't buying it, but also understood he didn't want to tell her what really happened. "Well, so long as she hasn't hurt you, I suppose it's fine if you spend time with her."

Thank fuck, he thought to himself. She wasn't going to make a fuss about it like he had feared, though she clearly didn't approve.

With that business taken care of, dinner was soon served. Thankfully his mother didn't bother him any more about the matter of Susie, and Kris was able to eat in peace.

The night also passed without incident, thankfully, and he was woken up in the morning once again by his mother. He found that he was actually excited to go to school today, even if that was solely because of Susie. Hopefully she'd be in more of a mood to talk today.

Heading out to their meeting spot at the usual time, Kris found that Susie was just as grumpy as she was last morning. Her expression very clearly stated that she wasn't interested in making idle chatter, so Kris decided not to try it, as disappointing as that was.

After a short while they reached the doors of the school. Unlike last morning, they could see and hear signs of activity inside, which made Kris both relieved and disappointed in equal measure.

"Everything looks normal today." Susie commented, finally breaking the silence between them. "I just hope nothing annoying happens today."

"Yeah, me too." Kris echoed her sentiment, though not entirely honestly. He wasn't sure if it was wrong of him to wish that something would happen so that he could talk "normally" with Susie again, but he couldn't help feeling it either way.

The morning classes also passed normally, although Kris was the recipient of worried looks from many of the other students when he walked into the room with and then sat down next to Susie. He didn't mind, of course, he hadn't been close friends with any of them before all this anyway.

When lunch rolled around, Kris discovered another perk of hanging around Susie: the two of them got a table all to themselves. However, something was definitely off today. Despite Susie apparently not having food at home, she could only stare and grumble at her lunch instead of actually eating it.

"Something wrong with the lunch today?" Kris asked, hoping she wouldn't be angry at him for asking.

"I just don't feel hungry today." Susie grumbled. "Well...scratch that, I feel hungry, but I also feel like I'm going to barf up anything I eat."

Kris wondered if monsters actually got sick like humans did. He never recalled either of his parents having the same kind of stomach bugs that he got, but then again, maybe different monsters worked in different ways.

He decided the best way to answer his question was just to ask. "You ever been sick like this before?"

"Nah." She groaned. "But I guess I have now."

"Do monsters even get sick?" Kris asked. He was starting to think that this might be something less mundane than a stomach virus, especially if monsters didn't get those.

"I dunno." Susie replied. "I've never gotten sick before...well...except when i eat bad food, I guess. But this feels way worse than any food poisoning I've had, and besides, I'm pretty sure those burgers yesterday weren't bad."

Kris almost didn't want to even suggest that this might be a stand's doing. It seemed so trivial and routine a thing to be caused by something so out of the ordinary as a manifestation of a person's soul. Still, if she'd never experienced something like this before, it was a cause for concern.

"You think it might be a stand doing it?" Kris almost felt bad asking the question. After all, it would be their third day in a row with a stand related problem if he was right. He imagined she could use a break from that kind of thing.

Susie scoffed at his question. "Nah. I mean, come on, isn't that a little paranoid? I probably just got some weird monster sickness...if monsters even get those."

Kris was now no longer sure if even monsters knew how monster biology worked. The again, maybe it was just Susie who didn't know. She didn't seem like the type to have paid attention during biology class, if there even WAS a monster biology class.

"Do you REALLY not know if monsters get sick?" He asked, his tone tinged with disbelief.

Susie took another longing look at her lunch before responding. "Yeah. I have no clue, freak. But since I'm obviously sick NOW, I guess you can use that brain you ought to have between those ears of yours and figure out that monsters MUST get sick."

Before he could decide whether to retort with a witty comment or try and convince her of the possibility that they might be under attack, the bell rang, reminding them that it was time to get back to classes. On the way to their next class, Kris realized he could actually hear Susie's stomach rumble on occasion. This only made him more worried about whatever was ailing her, even if it wasn't a stand.

School passed with no incidents, aside from Susie looking visibly distraught the whole time. She didn't look much better when the two of them met up outside the school building.

"Still feeling sick?" He asked, hopeful that maybe it had cleared up and she could eat at Asriel's place.

"Yeah." She grumbled. "If anything it's worse than before."

This wasn't good. Sickness or not, getting attacked while Susie was like this would put them at a disadvantage.

"How about we head over to Asriel's, then." Kris suggested, eager to both try and get Susie some help and to see his friend again. "Maybe he'll be able to help with this."

"Guess it can't hurt." Susie sighed. "Though I think his sense of humor could make me even sicker than I already feel."

As they headed towards Asriel's house, Kris tried to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious following them. If there was a stand user at work, they probably had to stay at some fixed distance from Susie to be able to affect her. This proved to be a difficult endeavor, as the streets were full of alleyways, houses, and cars that could easily be used as cover for a stand user.

Suddenly, as they were passing the library, Susie doubled over with a grunt of pain. Kris rushed to her side just in time to see her cough up a small amount of white dust.

"Susie?" he asked, with a slight tremble to his voice that he hoped she didn't hear. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm not, freak!" She growled back at him. "I feel like something punched my stomach from the inside or something!"

That confirmed his suspicion, this was definitely a stand user. But, if his next guess was correct, the stand was also inside Susie. It was certainly possible, as he recalled a story his father had told him about a now deceased friend of his shrinking his stand in order to excise a tumor from someone.

"You know...I think you might have been right about it being a stand. I think I can hear it laughing at us." Susie panted. "From...uh...my stomach, I guess."

Kris stayed quiet and listened carefully. He could very faintly hear a small voice that was not Susie's coming from her mouth, and it definitely sounded like laughter.

"That's really, really awkward." Kris said flatly. Perhaps it wasn't the right thing to say at the moment, but all he could think of was how weird it was going to be when he shrunk his stand to get the attacker out of her stomach. Of course, the problem with that plan was that he had no clue how he would actually navigate to her stomach.

Looking around the empty streets again, Kris soon saw the solution to that problem. The library. He hoped to the angel that they had a book about monster biology, one with diagrams.

Susie probably wouldn't like his plan, but he didn't see any other way to go about this. They simply had to assume that there was a stand inside her stomach, and that in the absence of any stand user the only solution was for Kris to shrink his stand to expel the attacker from her. "Susie. I have a plan." he told her. "Follow me into the library."

"You mean the Librarby." Susie chuckled weakly, staggering back to her feet and stumbling alongside Kris as they headed inside."

"I refuse to call it that." He shot back. "We both know what they meant to spell it as."

"What's the plan, smart-ass?" She asked him as they entered the building.

"Let's just get into one of those empty rooms that they reserve for meetings." He told her, not wanting to explain his plan where people might overhear it.

Despite attracting a few odd looks from people studying or searching for books in the library, Susie managed to walk straight enough that nobody stopped them to try and ask what was going on, and they reached one of the empty conference rooms without incident.

Once inside, he helped Susie sit down comfortably in one of the chairs, a gesture which she thankfully didn't object to.

"All right." He began to explain. "Unless you know a awful lot about monster anatomy, I'm going to need you to hang tight in here for a bit while I look for a book on it."

"Why is that?" she groaned in annoyance.

"Because if there's stand in your stomach, the only way to deal with it is for me to send mine down there as well."

Now Susie looked at him like he was crazy, which in any other circumstance would have been entirely plausible. "You mean you're going to fight someone in my stomach?"

"Exactly." Kris stated. "Unless you have a better idea, I'm going to shrink my stand so I can get in there and forcibly remove the stand that's causing this."

"How are you going to shrink your stand?" Susie asked incredulously.

Kris had actually done it once before, after his father told him that story. It was incredibly draining, but he could definitely manage it. "You just kind of...focus on making it smaller. A stand is just a manifestation of your soul, after all, so it stands to reason you could make it smaller with some focus."

"Whatever, freak." Susie waved her hand dismissively at him, as if to indicate she was no longer interested in the subject. "Just hurry up and find that book, will you? At this rate, my stomach might actually be killing me."

Needing no more prompting, Kris hurried out into the library and began searching for the book he needed. While he franticlly searched through the shelves, however, something occurred to him. He was going to need to re-route his sight to his stand in order to have any awareness while he was, for lack of a better term, moving through Susie's insides. This would mean that he couldn't be looking at the book, and would need someone to read through the book and guide him to his destination. In theory Susie could do it, but she might not understand whatever jargon the book used.

This was when he spied exactly what he needed. Berdly and Noelle were pouring over some books, probably working on their school project.

"Hey, Noelle. Can I borrow you for a little while? I promise it's REALLY important." He blurted out quickly as he approached the two.

"Are you trying to sabotage our project or something, Kris?" Berdly asked, giving Kris a snide look. "You know they don't grade on a curve in our class, right?"

Noelle, meanwhile, was already giving Kris a suspicious look. She probably thought he was up to something, and he didn't blame her for thinking that.

"I promise it's not about that, Berdly." He bluntly replied, before turning back to the doe. "Noelle. I promise this isn't a prank. I REALLY need your help right now."

The tone of his voice must have gotten the point across, because after looking between Kris and Berdly a few times, she rose from her seat. "A-all right. It sounds really important. Besides, Berdly seems to think he could do this alone anyway."

Kris heard Berdly mumble something that he didn't quite catch as he led Noelle back to the room where Susie was, picking up the most professional looking book on monster anatomy on the way.

Noelle's eyes went wide when she entered and saw Susie reclining in one of the chairs, visibly and audibly in pain.

"K-kris? What's going on here?" She asked, her voice starting to tremble.

"Don't freeze up on me now, Noelle. Don't ask questions either, because I don't have the time to explain it to you." He called out his stand as he put the book down on the table and sat down, beginning the process of focusing to shrink it down.

"You can see it, can't you, Noelle?" He asked her, receiving a rapid nod in reply. "There's one of these in Susie, down in whatever the monster equivalent of the human stomach is. It's been keeping her from eating the whole day, and now it's gotten impatient. I need you to open that book up, and act as if you're guiding me through a monster's body from the mouth down to the "stomach". I know it seems weird, but I promise you won't get hurt, okay?"

The doe's face was a mask of pure shock, her breathing already turned to quiet but rapid panting. He realized that he had probably explained everything too fast and overwhelmed Noelle with talk of monster stomachs and enemy stands. 

Knowing that he couldn't afford for her to run away or have a panic attack on him now, he tried something potentially risky. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes as she spoke his next words. 

"Noelle, listen. I know this is really sudden and scary, but I NEED you with me right now, okay? I don't need anything difficult from you, I just need you to read to me from a book. That's all." He then removed his hands from her and stepped back, hoping that he had gotten through to her.

Noelle took in a few deep breaths before sitting down and opening the book up with trembling hands. "A-all right, Kris. I...don't understand what's going on at all, and I don't think I want to. B-but I'll do this."

Kris gave her a nod of acknowledgment before turning back to Susie. "All right, Susie. Open wide, and pretend you're going to a dentist."

"A what?" She grunted back, though still opening her mouth up as Kris asked.

With no small amount of hesitation as the full implications of how weird this was set in, Kris sent his stand into Susie's mouth.

"Okay, Noelle. I need you to start guiding me now. I'll be effectively blind on my end, since I need to see through that ghost person you saw. You need to guide me completely by words, okay?"

Noelle gave him a short "Mhm!" in affirmation before beginning the slow and awkward process of guiding Kris to his destination.

Kris for his part attempted to take in as little of his surroundings as possible. He had never really imagined that he'd ever be spelunking through a monster's insides, nor had he ever really wanted to.

Susie's vocalizations of pain and occasional coughing up of dust spurred him onward, making sure that the awkwardness of the situation didn't slow him down. If he took too long, the stand down there might actually kill her. Why it hadn't done so yet was beyond him, but he was sure he'd find out soon enough.

After what felt like an eternity of "swimming" through the magical syrup that made up a monster's internal fluids, he finally reached the stomach, or the monster equivalent, anyway. The source of Susie's pains was immediately clear upon reaching his destination. A short and lean looking humanoid stand, clad in a light looking outfit of dark leather with a bright red heart on the chest was floating around and occasionally punching or scratching at the stomach walls.

"All right, Noelle. I'm there. Thanks for all the help." He said, before routing all his senses into his stand, effectively rendering him blind, deaf, and mute outside of Susie. With his senses now ready for battle, he drew his stand's sword and addressed the stand.

"You made a mistake taunting us earlier." He stated. "If you hadn't done that, I might never have figured out to come down here."

The stand ceased its attack on Susie and turned to face Kris. "And you think I DIDN'T want you down here, lightener? You really do have no idea who you're dealing with, do you?"

That wasn't a good sign. The attacker didn't seem surprised to see him down here at all. It was only now that Kris realized he may have just fallen for a trap.

"Enlighten me, then." He told the stand, keeping his expression neutral the whole time.

"Of course!" It responded enthusiastically, with a voice that was about as pleasant to listen to as a rusty door. "In the dark world, I'm called the Jack of hearts! Me and my fellow "suits" serve as the knight's assassins, killing off lightener stand users to prepare for the invasion of your world."

This wasn't good. Kris had only been in a serious stand battle a couple ties, and that was if the training with Susie counted. Going up against an experienced assassin was not exactly a good proposition, especially not while he was straining his focus to keep his stand shrunk. He wasn't even sure if he could rewind time like this.

"You're currently speaking to my stand, "Stay Hungry", which I named for my preferred method of killing my targets. I am personally sitting comfortably somewhere in the librarby. You know, I'm so glad you fell for it and came down here. I WAS just going to kill this stupid chalk eater by starving her to death, but then I realized that I didn't know jack shit about human anatomy. Naturally, that would make killing you a bit of a challenge if i can't even find your vital organs. Luckily, my stand is naturally this small, which means fighting you down here should be no problem at all!"

He really should have thought this through a bit better. Of course a stand that prefers to kill their victims inside would naturally be small. He cursed himself for not considering that earlier, before he got into this mess.

"Yeah, I get it, you're REAL smart and you want to make sure I know it." He shot back. No way he was going to let this guy have the last word. "Now put your money where your mouth is."

With that declaration, he charged at Stay Hungry with his sword. His enemy responded to this by jumping over Kris in a surprising display of speed, giving him a kick to the back of the head as he did so.

With that, Kris decided that he needed to try something besides a frontal assault. Unfortunately, the environment did not lend itself well to being exploited. In fact, Kris was mortally afraid of stabbing the walls of the stomach by mistake.

Thus, he found himself on the defensive, which he turned out to be very good at. Stay Hungry was fast, but not so fast that Kris couldn't deflect its blows if he focused on defense. At the very least he could manage to keep them in a stalemate, if nothing else.

That was, until his enemy retreated a few meters from him and produced a dagger from a concealed sheath on its belt.

"You're not bad, human. Even at this size you're quick enough that I can't do anything to you if you don't try to attack me first. But! I have the advantage here, in that I don't really care what happens to your stupid, chalk eating friend!"

Kris didn't like where this was going, but he could see it very clearly. It looked like his only chance would be to catch his enemy off guard by rewinding time at the right moment.  
  
"You better attack me soon, human. Or else I might just have to start carving chunks off of your friend's stomach!" With that declaration, Stay Hungry moved back a little so that he was next to the wall of the stomach before slowly moving its knife hand toward the wall.

Kris had to act, trap or not. He lunged forward, intending to cut his enemy's chest open with his stands sword. As he expected, his opponent seized the opportunity to launch at attack of their own. A quick and sudden kick to his hand sent Kris' sword flying away from him before it ever reached the target.

This was the moment. Kris quickly rewound time and diverted his strike away from the kick, which instead only hit the air harmlessly. However, his opponent pushed one of their hands against the stomach walls, propelling them away from Kris's strike. They followed this up with a vaulting leap that landed them behind Kris. This action did not come in time to completely avoid the blow, but Kris' sword simply grazed his target's stomach as they moved to the side. It did leave a slight cut, but nothing substantial.

Kris silently cursed having used up his one rewind as he tried to turn and face his opponent, but didn't have much time to reflect on it, as he soon felt his enemy clinging onto his back with their arms around his neck. Before Kris could use his sword to stab back at his enemy's head, Stay Hungry jabbed its knife into Kris's sword arm, which forced him to drop his sword in pain.

"Haha! I got you!" His enemy laughed in the most mocking tone Kris could imagine. "I don't know why the knight was so specific about wanting you dead! You're hardly a threat at all!"

With no way to reply to the mockery, and his vision fading as his breath did, Kris decided to at least get one last look at Susie before he went out. Better than looking at the inside of her stomach to be sure. even if it was still a reminder of his failure.

As he switched his vision to that of his own body, he noticed something odd. Susie was smiling. A wide grin from ear to ear. What was that for? Did she think he was winning?

His questions were answered by her next words, which were spoken with a tone of complete triumph. "Kris...you did a good job. You got that bastard right where we wanted him."

Just as he hastily turned back to his stand's vision, he heard an ear piercing scream from the stand behind him as it released his throat. turning around, he saw Susie's stand towering over both of them, both of its axes buried in Stay Hungry's head. The enemy stand took on an expression of pure agony as it cracked down the middle, the cracks starting from the spot where the axes were embedded and merging before traveling down the body lengthwise. After a few more moments, Stay Hungry splintered into pieces, which in turn vanished before Kris and Susie's eyes.

Recalling their stands and returning to their senses in the library, they heard the very same scream of pain echoing through the building, followed by panicked screaming from some of the patrons. 

As the screaming increased in volume, Noelle suddenly bolted toward the door, her face back in that wide eyed, scared expression that she had displayed when Kris showed her his stand a little while ago.

Before the doe could throw the door open and draw any attention to the room's occupants, Susie grabbed Noelle by the shirt and dragged her back toward the two of them.

"Don't run out there, idiot!" The purple monster snarled, a gesture which quickly put an end to Noelle's panicked movements. "You want to get us questioned as possible witnesses when the cops show up?"

Noelle gave Susie a rapid, scared nod, which seemed to be enough to prompt Susie to release her. Instead of running again, the doe simply took a seat in one of the room's chairs, slowly bringing her breath back down to a normal pace from it's former hyperventilation. 

"Susie, when did you...?" Kris couldn't manage to finish his question, still, stunned by his near death experience.

"It was after you got that kick to the head." Susie explained. "I realized that you might need help, and with that dumb ass no longer kicking my guts around, I had the energy and focus to shrink my stand like you shrunk yours. Speaking of that, do you think that guy's still alive after what his stand went through?"

"Absolutely not." Kris said with certainty. "That guy will never bother us again."

"Yes!" Susie exclaimed, as she and Kris shared an enthusiastic high five.

None of their battles before this had really felt like a win, so to speak. But this, this was really a fight for their lives. A kill or be killed scenario, and they had won. Maybe, just maybe, they'd have a chance of defeating the Knight someday after all.  
  
<\--To be continued


	6. Gravity

A smile came over Undyne's face as Asgore walked through the library doors. She hadn't expected to see him at a crime scene, but she certainly wasn't disappointed to see him.

"Undyne, I'm glad to see they sent you here!" He said, a smile coming over his own, previously concerned looking face.

"The police force hasn't had to deal with an actual murder before, so it only makes sense they'd send the only one with a brain." She said with a laugh.

"This was a murder, then?" He asked, his expression turning to one of concern again.

"Yeah, it has to be." She told him, her own face turning equally solemn. "Some guy from out of town just collapsed into dust in a chair, but not before letting out a scream that everyone in the library heard."

The news didn't seem to shock Asgore as much as Undyne thought it would. In fact, he seemed like he knew more about what was going on than she did. "Did anybody see what killed him?"

Undyne shook her head. "No. I was going to ask the witnesses again though, in case they forgot anything."

"Don't bother." Asgore sighed. "They couldn't have seen anything. At least, not unless they were stand users."

"Wait a minute, what makes you so sure that there's a stand involved?" She asked.

"I don't think the timing of this incident is any coincidence." He said gravely. "My son, Kris, had some kind of problem with his stand two days ago. The very next day, there was an unexplained incident where the whole school fell asleep for an hour of the morning. And now this happens. To put it bluntly, I don't think the timing is a coincidence."

"Why wouldn't it just be a coincidence? Maybe it's just a weird week." She suggested, really hoping that they weren't dealing with a super powered murderer. As strong as she was, she couldn't fight something she couldn't see, like a stand.

"Undyne. Do you believe in "gravity"?"

The question struck her as exceedingly strange. "I mean...I kind of have to. It's why I can't leap over buildings and stuff like that."

Asgore shook his head slowly. "Not that kind of gravity. My old friend Gerson used to call the inexplicable attraction that stand users have to one another "gravity." I use the term to refer to the idea that certain people are drawn to each other, like you and I were."

She still thought the question was weird, but at least she understood it. "In that case, yeah, I believe in "gravity." Why do you ask?"

"Because "gravity" is the reason I believe that the deceased was killed by a stand user, and that the three strange events in the past three days are all related."

"So, are you saying that we have a murderer with a stand on the loose in town?" She asked him, really hoping that he said no. Not being a stand user herself, she had no clue how she or the police department would deal with that.

"We can't say for sure yet." He stated. "For all we know, the deceased was the one trying to kill somebody. You DID say he was new in town, right?"

"Yeah, he was." She admitted. "Nobody could even tell me his name, and I didn't find any ID on him. I guess it was a bit hasty to say it was a murder."

"We don't know yet." Asgore said again. "But I also don't think your investigation will turn anything up either way."

Great. Her first exciting case in her whole career and it was going to be a dead end. "So what do we do, then? People are going to expect some kind of explanation."

Asgore looked thoughtful for a moment before he replied. "I have a friend who's experienced with this kind of thing. I'll call them when I get home and see when they can get into town. In the meantime I might be able to think of a few ways we could investigate together, but I'd need a little time to ponder that."

Undyne nodded in reply. "Right. I guess I'll just wrap up here and tell the chief the bad news. By the way, we still on for saturday?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Asgore replied, his face brightening up again. "I was worried that this might get you too busy for that though. Do you think you'll still be able to make it?"

Talking him about that at a time like this might have been rather unprofessional, but she had REALLY been looking forward to the movie for a while now.

"If I don't turn up any leads here, then sure!" She replied.

"Great." He replied with a smile. "I'll see you soon, then."

"See you soon, big guy." She said softly as he turned and left the library, leaving Undyne wondering what exactly she was going to get herself into.

A wide, stupid grin came over Asriel's face as Kris finished telling him about their encounter with jack of hearts. It was the kind of look that told Kris he was about to cringe. A lot.

"Golly. I bet that wasn't what you expected from your first time in a girl, huh?"

Asriel's comment caused Kris and Susie to let out a loud, simultaneous groan. Kris really did love Az to death, but he made that very difficult sometimes.

"Az, please. Can you take this seriously for a while?" Kris pleaded, though his tone sounded more mildly annoyed than pleading. He had expected Asriel to be more worried after he related the story about their fight with Jack of Hearts, but he seemed more amused than anything. Well, after he had bandaged the cut on Kris' back, anyway.

After they had taken a few moments to celebrate their victory in the library, the two of them had realized that the death screams of their opponent would probably prompt someone to call the police. Not wanting to be around for that, they had climbed out the window of the conference room and made for Asriel's place, leaving a very confused Noelle behind.

"Okay, okay, Kris." Asriel laughed. "I just couldn't pass up that opportunity."

"Aren't you a little bit worried that Jack of hearts told Kris about a GROUP of assassins?" Susie asked impatiently, looking up from a large plate of sandwiches that he had been digging in to.

  
"Have a little more faith in yourselves." Asriel told them after taking a long sip of his tea. "You both knew it was only going to get harder after your visit to the dark world, or at least you should have."

"I'm already sick of it." Susie grumbled in between sandwiches. "I've been hungrier in the last twenty four hours than I've been in a long time, and that's saying something. Not to mention getting punched from the inside."

"The fact is, you don't have any choice." Asriel pointed out. "From what I've heard, your mere existence threatens the Knight's plans. I don't imagine he'll stop until either you're dead or he is."

"We should count our lucky stars that the knight hasn't come up to our world to finish what he started in the dark world." Kris said. "As scary as the idea of being hunted by a group of assassins is, it's better than having to fight the knight head on."

"He's probably afraid!" Susie replied with a wide grin. "And I bet he'll be even more afraid once he realizes we killed one of his goon squad."

Kris rolled his eyes at the comment, though Susie couldn't see him do it. "It's more likely that he's afraid there's a stand user in our world that can kill him. By sending his servants to kill us instead, he doesn't risk his own neck."

"I think Kris is right." Asriel said. "He's probably more afraid of the stand users he doesn't know about than the ones he does."

"Well he SHOULD be afraid of us!" Susie snarled. "Because when I get my hands on him, I'm going to make him pay for making me miss lunch today!"

Asriel smiled a little at her comment. "Say, Kris, are you SURE you don't want to tell your dad about what's going on?" He asked. "He's a pretty experienced stand user from what I understand."

Kris shook his head slowly. "Absolutely not. My dad's stand is good for gardening, not fighting. Bringing him into this will only put him in harms way."

Asriel shrugged in response. "I dunno. I'm just worried that your skin is going to be a hundred percent scar tissue before this is over. Imagine trying to explain THAT to your mother."

"We'll just need to be more careful from here on out." Kris told him, with a sense of finality to the comment.

"Fine." Asriel said with a sigh. "I just think you should at least try to find help. These assassins might not all come one at a time, after all."

"For now, we'll just have to assume that we're the only useful stand users in town." Susie stated, finishing the last of the sandwiches. "And go forward assuming that it'll just be the two of us."

Kris gave her a nod of agreement. Her use of "just the two of us" was somewhat heartening, coming from her. It seemed like she at least considered him a teammate. Though Kris still hoped she'd be willing to be friends once it was all over.

"We better go." Susie said, getting up from her chair. "Otherwise Kris' mommy will start wondering where he is."

Asriel chuckled at her teasing tone. "See you two around. Be safe out there, okay?"

"You too, Az." Kris replied as he followed Susie out the door.

Kris fully expected the now routine walk back to his place to be spent in silence, which is why Susie suddenly speaking up surprised him.

"Hey...uh...I wanted to thank you, freak."

"Thank me for what?" He asked, hoping he didn't look too confused.

"For...you know, the whole saving my life thing." She replied, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. "You really put your neck out for me back in the library."

"Don't worry about it." Kris told her. "I couldn't exactly let my partner die on me, could I?"

"Yeah, I guess not." She sighed. "Still, it'd be pretty crappy of me to not at least thank you for it."

"I'm sure you'll repay the favor sometime. After all, that's what fr-...partners are for, right?" He mentally cursed himself for letting his nerves win out and not going ahead and saying "friends" just to see how she'd react.

Fortunately, Susie didn't seem to notice his sudden change of words, that or she just didn't acknowledge it. "You're damn right I will, freak! Just don't go throwing yourself into danger to make me do it, okay?"

"Don't worry about that." He assured her. "I've already had enough cuts and bruises to last me for a long time."

With that, the two reached Kris' house, and he bade her goodnight. As he went inside, he felt a little heartened by the little exchange they had on the way back. Maybe Susie didn't mind being around him as much as he thought she did. Only time would tell though, he figured, and decided not to get his hopes up too much for now.

<\-- To be Continued


	7. Hammer to Fall, part 1

Somehow, Susie had gotten what she wished for. The day after she almost had her stomach eviscerated by Jack of Hearts had been perfectly normal. Well, aside from them getting a weird substitute teacher for their first class of the day. Apparently Alphys had come down with some nasty sickness, so the school had gotten substitute called "Miss Heisha" to teach her class until she recovered.

Susie didn't like her. Not because she was bad at teaching or anything, but she was creepy as all hell. She kind of looked like one of those mannequins that they had in clothing stores, but with a checkerboard pattern of black and white all over her. The creepiest part was her complete lack of eyes and mouth, which made Susie wonder how she talked or saw anything.

Still, creepy as she was, she didn't seem to mind Susie dozing off in class, like she was at the very moment these thoughts were going through her head.

She spared a sleepy glance over to Kris, who was giving the teacher his full attention. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn't figure out why he seemed to want to spend MORE time with her than he had to. Sure, walking to and from school was a necessity, but by all rights he should have been wanting to head home after that, not invite her to visit the diner with him.

She couldn't help but feel like he was trying to make it hurt more when they inevitably went their separate ways. After all, he did say that he used to pull pranks a lot, right?

Shaking her head, she resolved not to think about that kind of thing, at least for now, and dozed off to an in-class nap.

She was awoken by the ringing of the lunch bell, and opened her eyes to the usual sight of the entire classroom getting up to leave.

"Give me just a little bit for a bathroom break, okay? I'll be with you in a minute." Kris told her as the two of them walked out into the hallway.

After giving him a nod and grunt of affirmation she leaned against a locker while she waited for him to get back. As usual, she let her eyes drift nearly shut as they tended to when she had nothing to do.

She was rudely awakened from her trance-like state by the feeling of someone bumping into her, and quickly opened her eyes with a grunt of annoyance.

Immediately she was hit by a feeling of disappointment when she saw that the person who had bumped into her was a teacher. Their substitute teacher, to be precise. This meant that all she could do was look extremely annoyed instead of offer to eat her face if she did that again.

Curiously, Heisha said nothing to Susie as she walked off down the hall. Most teachers would at least have apologized, and some would have told her to watch where she was standing. Still, Ms Heisha was an odd duck, so Susie simply chalked the behavior up to that.

  
Kris walked back into the hallway mere moments later, prompting Susie to start heading to the lunch hall.

"Come on, freak. I'm hungry." She grumbled to him.

Instead of the usual nod or quiet agreement that she had come to expect, she saw Kris look around the hallway in apparent confusion.

"Hey, freak! I'm over here!" She called over to him, although by all rights he should have been able to hear her earlier.

Instead of responding to her, he walked back over to the classroom and looked inside, giving off a bemused "Huh" upon seeing it was empty.

She understood what was going on now. She had expected him to get sick of her, but doing something like this was meaner than she had expected.

She felt herself start to choke up a little as she watched Kris walk off toward the dining hall, still pretending she wasn't there. This wasn't supposed to happen yet, dammit! they still had a common enemy, right?

The only answer that came to mind was that he had found another stand user, one who was actually pleasant to be around. That would make sense. After all, who would want to be her friend if they had a choice in the matter?

With those thoughts filling her mind, she forgot her hunger, and no longer felt like lunch. With a heavy heart, she turned back to the classroom door and reached a hand out to open it. Strangely, the door didn't budge when she tried to pull it open, nor did it budge when she tried to push it.

That wasn't right at all. It didn't feel like the door had suddenly gotten heavy or anything like that. It was more like the the door was simply impossible to move.

Something was definitely very wrong. Susie actually hoped that it was related to why Kris was ignoring her. Anything would be better than what she had thought was going on at first.

With nothing to lose from trying, she approached one of the students slowly filing down the hallway. They didn't react when she approached them, an act which normally should have elicited some kind of panicked response. In fact, the student simply walked right through her, as if she was a ghost.

The relief she felt at having a different explanation for Kris ignoring her was offset by a feeling of panic. If she couldn't open doors or interact with people, how was she supposed to find who was responsible for this and beat the crap out of them? Equally importantly: how was she going to tell Kris that they were getting attacked?  
  
Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, she decided that the first thing to do was determine who was doing this. After that was done she would try and figure out how to get a message to Kris, or even deal with the stand user herself if she could.

After confirming that she could indeed still summon her stand, an idea occurred to her. Maybe her stand could open doors, even if she couldn't for whatever reason.

A quick test told her that this was not the case. Her stand was unable to open any doors, or even pass through them while they were closed as it should have been able to. She even went so far as to try and bash down a door with her stand, though it stood as firm as a mountain in the face of the strongest blows she could throw at it.

Her initial efforts to solve her door problem foiled, she elected to sit down in the hallway to think instead.

This had all started happening right after the substitute teacher had bumped into her. That fact combined with how new she was to the school made her the most likely suspect.

Despite all that circumstantial evidence, she still had to be sure that Heisha was the problem before she started punching, if she even could.

Standing up, she headed for the teacher's lounge, as that was where she figured most teachers would be during the students lunch hour. Even if she couldn't open doors herself, she figured she could still wait for someone else to open them and follow them through.

Though the halls were mostly empty, there were still some staff and teachers passing by Susie as she walked through the school. The fact that they didn't even glance nervously in her direction as some usually did, however voluntary that might be, somehow made her feel more lonely than usual.

Upon reaching the teacher's lounge, she had to wait a while for someone to actually open the door so that she could go in. As much as it was annoying to have to wait for someone else to get the door for her, it did show her that she wasn't just confined to the hallway, which was a relief in of itself.

As she walked into the lounge, which was populated only by Heisha, Susie noticed that the substitute teacher's eyes followed not the teacher who had opened the door, but Susie herself.

The teacher who had opened the door left soon after with a few others, leaving Susie alone with Heisha.

"I see you're already figuring out a few of the rules, little girl." The teacher said with a patronizing tone.

Instead of wasting time talking to her, Susie decided to strike first before she could try anything funny. Summoning her stand, she swung one of her axes right at the teacher's head, only for it to pass right harmlessly through her.

"Smart of you." Heisha said, chuckling to herself. "But altogether useless. Once my stand, Hammer to Fall, has you trapped in its ghost world, there's nothing you can do except wait for death."

Not yet convinced that she had no form of attack, Susie attempted to grab a nearby mug. To her surprise, it worked, and her stand picked up the soon-to-be projectile with no trouble and flung it at her opponent.

To Susie's dismay, however, the mug simply passed right through her opponent as they stood up before shattering against the wall behind them.

"Ah, right." The teacher grunted. "Since it hasn't been twelve hours yet, you can still pick up small objects. Well, not that it will help you much, since you can't affect people in any way from my ghost world."

With that remark, she started to head for the door. "I suppose you should know exactly who's going to kill you. I'm called the queen of Hearts, and unlike the unruly jack of my suit, I have...finesse. In exactly twenty four hours from the time I bumped into you and affected you with my stand, you will quietly and irreversibly cease to exist."

Susie felt herself tense up at the announcement. How was she supposed to beat this if she couldn't affect people at all? The only way would be to somehow tell Kris what was going on.

"Oh, and don't bother trying to pass a message to your human friend." the queen of hearts said with a smile. "Any small object you touch joins you in the ghost world while you're holding it, meaning any pencil you picked up wouldn't actually write on paper. Additionally, you can only bring ONE object into the ghost world at a time, so no bringing pencil AND paper in there at once."

"What kind of dumb stand is this?!" Susie shouted. "How do you even manage to get one with these super specific rules?"

The queen shook her head dismissively. "It certainly wasn't my choice. I think it works that way because my stand isn't able to completely sever your tie to the physical world, at least not for the first half a day. Luckily for me, it does that just well enough to be the perfect killing machine. I think it's a little poetic how the victim gets exactly a day with their impending demise hanging over them. Just one day to make peace with death. Wouldn't you call that...romantic, in a way?"

"I'm going to find a way out of this." Susie told her, grim determination in her voice. "And when I do, I'm going to make you regret the day you left your chessboard."

"Good luck with that." The queen replied. "Just make the most of your final day on this earth. Well, as much of it as you can make of it while you're totally alone."

With that, she left the teacher's lounge just as the bell rang, leaving Susie alone to try and think of her next move. There had to be some kind of loophole in these rules, something she could use to get a message to Kris. Now more than ever, she wished she actually had the little weirdo here to help her think this through.

Still, she was fighting to save him just as much as she was to save herself. If she died now, there'd be no one to save Kris when he got pulled into this ghost world. It was with these thoughts in mind that Susie sat down, both to wait for someone to open the door again, and to figure out how she was going to make the Queen of Hearts regret leaving the dark world.

<\-- To be Continued

 

 

 


	8. Hammer to Fall, Part 2

The Queen of Hearts sighed in relief as school finally let out for the day. Everything was going perfectly, and once the purple brat was dead, she could lock the human in her ghost world before skipping town, effectively ensuring his demise.

By all rights, she shouldn't have even had to deal with this. All that Jack of Hearts needed to do was not get greedy and kill them one at a time, such lack of subtlety was more fitting of a club than a heart.

Still, being able to deal with the matter herself meant that she would surely receive a generous reward from the knight. What made the human special, she couldn't say, but the fact that her master and mentor wanted him dead was all the reason she needed.

Her silent revelry was halted by the sight of the human, Kris, passing by her on the way out of school. A reminder that she shouldn't get ahead of herself quite yet, or she'd likely suffer the same fate as her underling. In fact, this was the diciest part of the whole operation.

For the next few hours, until the human returned home, she had to follow him about town. Just to ensure that he didn't somehow get wind of what was going on.

This was nothing new to her, of course. She had done this sort of thing many times before, and shadowing some novice stand user wouldn't be too difficult.

As it turned out, he was awfully paranoid for someone living in a small town like this. His near constant glancing over his shoulder made shadowing him an arduous process of ducking in and out of alleys when there weren't any convenient crowds to hide in.

Even so, she managed to follow him to his destination without being spotted, at least as far as she could tell. She noted with some surprise that his destination happened to be Alphys' house. No doubt this meant that he already suspected her, and was looking for some proof.

Still, his investigation gave her no worry. Even as Alphys weakly opened her door to greet him when he knocked, she knew that he wouldn't find any proof there.

He'd likely ask about her sickness, to which she'd reply that she was feeling better every day and assure him that she'd be back to school any day now.

This was all true, of course, because the doses of poison that the Queen of Hearts had been putting in her breakfast had been getting smaller and smaller every day, all to contribute to the illusion of the sickness being totally natural. In fact, this visit was more likely to allay his suspicions than give him any evidence.

The only thing that bothered her was that she hadn't seen any sign of that chalk eating ingrate for a while now. The expectation had been that she would have at least tried to get her friends attention somehow by now.

Perhaps her explanation of her stands invulnerability had been too much for the little rascal to handle. Yes, that had to be it. She had simply given up after hearing that there was nothing she could do. That, in her own mind, was a reasonable explanation.

It took only a few minutes for the human to finish his conversation with Alphys and leave. She guessed his next destination would be the dwelling of his only other friend, Asriel.

She guessed right, of course. Where else WOULD he go at a time like this, with his newest friend having suddenly vanished?

The large, three story building seemed excessive for a single person to live in, she thought as she followed her future prey to the street where the odd structure stood.

It mattered little to her what they spoke about. After all, as far as she understood, the owner of the building wasn't a stand user. She did, however, keep watch over it until about an hour later when the human emerged.

She was in the home stretch now. Once he went home for the day there'd be no way for the purple brat to get a message to him, and THEN she could say that she'd won.

When the human reached his own home, walked inside, and closed the door, she could barely stop herself from laughing. That had been almost too easy. Now he was behind a door that nobody else would be opening till the next morning, and by that time Susie wouldn't be able to pick up even small objects anymore.

As she turned to go back to her own dwelling place, she spotted that purple brat. She was heading towards the humans home with a determined look on her face, the look of someone with a plan.

For a moment she debated sticking around to see what the brat was up to, but hanging around someone's home while it was getting dark might create undue suspicion. After all, that one police officer was always looking for excuses to bring someone in for questioning, especially after jack of hearts was so inconsiderate as to die in a very public area.  
  
That was when she noticed it. The humans kitchen window was wide open.

A brief surge of panic welled within her as she considered that the purple brat could easily use it to get inside. After that it would be a simple matter of scattering small objects in patterns to form words to pass a message to the human.

Before she could decide on a course of action, she watched Toriel close the window about three quarters of the way and let out a sigh of relief. She wished she could thank the old goat for saving her from the humiliation of losing to a couple of brats.

Whatever the brat was going to try, there wasn't a way for her to get inside. It was with this comforting thought in mind that the queen of hearts turned and started walking back toward her home in the light world, ignoring the hate filled glare that the lightener monster was giving her. After all, she'd be dead well before this time tomorrow.

 

  
Susie followed close behind Kris as he walked into school the next morning. She had done all she could to tell him what was going on, but she had no way of knowing if he understood what she had meant.

Still, it seemed like she was just going to have to trust him. She had lost the ability to pick things up a few hours ago, and it was coming up on 24 hours since she had been shunted into this ghost world. Her life was in Kris' hands again, just like it had been at the librarby.

As much as she knew she might be about to die, this whole incident had put a lot of things in perspective for her, After all, she had had a whole night to dwell on it.

She had decided that if something like this could happen at any time, she couldn't afford to be scared of getting attached to Kris anymore. Well, at least she couldn't afford to let it make her hesitate to be friendly with him.

As she followed Kris into their homeroom, she made sure to give the queen of hearts the nastiest glare she could muster in her tired state. Sleeping hadn't proved easy or even possible the night before, and she was now extremely tired and hungry.

The waiting was the worst. Waiting for class to end with less than an hour until she died. Kris wouldn't have long to do something once class was over. If he even planned on doing anything at all.

Finally, mercifully but at the same time frighteningly, the bell rung. Kris stayed seated while the rest of the class quickly filed out the door.

"What's wrong, Kris?" the Queen of Hearts asked. "Not hungry?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something." Kris said, standing up from his desk and approaching her.

Susie could feel herself starting to sweat. This wasn't the time for a prolonged conversation. She only had about two minutes left to live! Why couldn't he just jump to a conclusion, just this one?

"What about?" The queen replied with a hint of concern in her voice.

"This." Kris announced, summoning his stand and sending its fist right for her face. Susie's heart soared. He was actually going to do it!

Then he stopped his fist mere inches from the queen's face.

"T-talk about what?" She asked, clearly nervous.

Susie wanted to scream at him. What on earth was he doing? There was literally one minute left until she died, and he was stopping his attack! In that moment, it looked like all the effort she had used to send him a message had gone to waste. She felt like she might actually die from frustration right there.

"Too late." He said. "You flinched. Now I KNOW you're a stand user."

With that announcement, he slammed his stand's fist into the side of the queen's head, sending her face first onto the floor.

"Oh, hey Susie." Kris said, turning around to look at her.

Susie hadn't realized it, but she had been panting loudly out of fear for the past minute or so.

"K-Kris? You can see me?" she panted out.

"Yep, sure can." He told her flatly. "Where were you?"

"I've been right behind you the whole day, freak!" She shouted, mostly out of joy and relief.

"Huh, weird." He replied. Tell me about it later. For now, I think we have an enemy stand user to deal with."

He gestured to the queen of hearts, who was groaning as she recovered from the blow to the head.

"H-how?" she blurted out. "How did you know it was me?"

"Well." Kris began casually. "I started suspecting it when someone threw magnets onto my refrigerator that spelled out two words: "Teacher, Stand." That was kind of a big hint."

"M-magnets?" The queen stammered. "H-how did she get magnets onto the fridge? The door was closed and she couldn't have gotten into the window!"

Now it was Susie's turn to be smug as she produced a fridge magnet from her pocket. One of the magnets for kids that came in the shape of a letter.

"Turns out my stand is real good at throwing things." Susie told her, a smile quickly forming on her face. "Kris' mom almost screwed me over when she made it so I couldn't climb through the window, but luckily she didn't close it all the way. I stole a couple boxes of fridge magnets from a store, taking them over to Kris' place one at a time so that I could spell out my message, and then used my stand to flick them one by one through the window and onto the fridge."

The queen was still incredulous. "B-but...C-certainly Toriel objected to some invisible vagrant throwing magnets into her house! S-she should have closed that window!"

Susie shrugged. That part had honestly been none of her doing. "Guess I was just lucky. I had to really time my first few throws so she wouldn't notice, but after the first couple of magnets she left the kitchen."

"Actually that was my doing." Kris interjected. "I noticed the first couple throws and figured that something was going on, so I asked her to come fix the TV for me. A task that I knew would take her forever since I had disconnected the power cable. She never bothers to check the cables."

At this, the queen seemed to be completely speechless. Susie decided they had rubbed in their intellectual superiority enough, and it was time for her to make her physical superiority abundantly clear.

"Now then." She said menacingly, summoning her stand to her side. "I'm gonna kick your ass so hard that you go back to being a pawn!"

"Wait a minute, Susie." Kris interrupted. "I've got some questions for her, and I think the offer of maybe not beating her to a pulp would incentive her to answer."

As much as Susie had been waiting for this, she decided to let Kris go ahead with it. They could probably use some answers, after all. "Fine. Go ahead and ask, but if she doesn't cough up the answers quick, I'm going to rearrange her face."

Kris gave a thankful nod to her before turning to their defeated enemy. "All right. First question. Why are you all being stupid enough to come at us one by one?"

"Well..." the queen took a nervous glance at Susie before answering. "That's because whoever kills the both you is sure to be rewarded greatly, and why split that bounty? We were all sure that you two were going to be easy prey."

"Fair enough, I guess." Kris shrugged. "I still think that's stupid, but I won't complain. All right then, tell us the abilities of your fellow stand users."

The queen was silent for a few moments, prompting Susie to make a few practice swings with her axes. This had the intended effect, making her speak up quickly. "I can't tell you all of them! I only know the stand powers of members of my suit, and there's only one of those left."

"You better tell us their ability, then." Kris told their opponent. "One is better than none."

"Well, us hearts are generally slow killers. " She began. "But the Ace of hearts might just be the slowest killer of us all. His ability slowly creates a self destructive split personality in his target."

Susie already didn't like the sound of this. Another stand that was going to attack them from a distance? It made her almost miss the knight.

"And the best part?" The queen continued, her tone sounding more and more taunting. "It has an unlimited range. He just needs the full name of his target, something I was sure to supply him while I had access to the school's records, just in case I did somehow lose. So you see, even though you've won here, your demise is still assured!"

Susie felt herself go cold at the announcement. Unlimited range? How in the world were they supposed to fight that?

"All right, Susie. We got our answers." Kris said, sounding as calm as ever. "Put away the axes."

"Are we really going to let her get away?" She asked him in reply.

"Did I say you couldn't beat her up?" Kris asked, walking over to the the nearest window and opening it as wide as he could. "Knock her out the window and I'll have Asriel make you extra sandwiches, okay?"

"You're on!" Susie replied happily, a wide grin coming across her face as the prospect of getting revenge pushed away the chilling revelation of their next opponent.

Her stand quickly grabbed a hold of the Queen of Hearts by the throat, before lining her up to the window for the impending beat down.

"Wait! You said you wouldn't do this if I gave you your answers!" The queen objected.

"I lied." Kris said flatly, a slight smirk crossing his face as Susie began to throw punches at a speed even she didn't realize she was capable of. Within moments, the Queen of Hearts went flying out of the classroom window, just as the bell rang to signal the end of the lunch hour.

<\-- To be Continued

 

 

 

 


	9. Consequences

Kris watched with amazement as Susie punched their substitute teacher out the window and into the forest surrounding the town. With any luck, she wouldn't be coming back to bother them anytime soon. Not that it would be much of a problem if she did, they weren't going to be caught by surprise twice in a row by the same stand after all.

"Nice aim." He commented. "Good hang time, too."

"Thanks!" She replied with a practically beaming smile. In fact, she looked happier than he'd ever seen her.

"What do you say we skip the rest of school and head straight to Asriel's place?" He suggested. He wasn't sure if she had been able to eat during...well, whatever had been going on with her yesterday.

"Sure, freak." She said, still smiling. "Just don't take it the wrong way if I doze off at the table, I didn't get to sleep at all last night."

"Tell me all about it on the way there." He said as he climbed out the recently opened window with Susie following close behind. "I still don't know exactly what that stand was doing."

Leaving the school grounds turned out to be an easy affair, as the woods allowed them some cover while they headed toward Asriel's place. On the way, Susie filled him in on what had happened to her in the last twenty four hours. The details were a little scary to think about. Especially when he heard how close he had come to letting her die.

It drove home the point that death could come for either of them at anytime, and they might not be so lucky the next time it did. He really ought to make the most of what time he had now, and be less shy around Susie. Then again, that was easier said than done.

"You know, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd actually be relieved to be getting attacked by someone." Kris said, upon hearing the end of her story.

"What makes you say that?" Susie asked, sounding extremely confused.

Kris took a deep breath before giving his answer, really hoping that she didn't somehow take it in a bad way. "Well, the alternative would have been that you had decided to ditch me. I'm glad that wasn't the case."

Susie's expression indicated that she didn't know exactly what to say, at least at first. "I...uh...felt the same way, freak."

Coming from her, "freak" had never sounded particularly demeaning, but the way she said it now made it sound like more of a term of endearment than an attempt at teasing.

"I'm glad to hear that." He replied. Unable to think of anything more to say on that matter, he decided to shift the topic. "So, we're going to have the weekend ahead of us soon. You got any plans?"

"Assuming we don't get attacked again this weekend? Not really."

"Want to use that time to hang out, then?" Kris asked. "There's a game console at my dad's place if you'd rather not do anything physical."

Susie stayed quiet for a while, making Kris wonder if he had said something wrong. Eventually she did speak up, albeit with a bit of hesitation in her voice. "You sure your dad wouldn't mind you hanging out with a delinquent?"

"Oh, please." Kris scoffed. "You're about as much of a delinquent as I am. After all, we're skipping class together, aren't we?"

Susie's expression was doubtful for a few moments before breaking into a warm smile, something Kris hadn't seen from her yet. It looked nice. "Sure, freak. I think we both need some time to relax after a week like this."

"Hopefully our enemies will decide they need a small break from losing." Kris quipped "Even they need days off, right?"

Susie simply gave him a short laugh in response, and soon after the two arrived at Asriel's place.

"Golly, Kris. shouldn't you be in school?" Asriel said with a short chuckle as he opened the door. "You could have interrupted my "me time", you know?"

"We had to punch our teacher out the window." Kris told him flatly. "So we're taking off school early. Also, Susie hasn't eaten or slept for a whole day now, so get extra sandwiches, will you?"

"I told you she hadn't ditched you, Kris." Asriel replied as he headed inside. "Should I tell her JUST how worried you were yesterday?"  
  
"She knows." Kris hastily interjected. "I'll tell you what was going while you get everything ready."  
  
True to his word, Kris filled his friend in on the events leading up to them beating the tar out of their substitute teacher. He seemed rather amused by the end of it, though he looked somewhat frightened by their description of Hammer to Fall's ability.  
  
"Jeez, that's scary." Asriel sighed as he sat down and gave Susie her plate of sandwiches before pouring himself and Kris tea. "That other stand she told you about doesn't sound like much fun either."  
  
"Way I see it, we can't do much about it right now." Kris replied. "So there's not much point worrying about it yet."

"And I thought I was the laid back one." Asriel said with a surprised look. "I guess that's a good attitude though. What do you think S-"

Turning to Susie, both Kris and Asriel saw that she was sound asleep with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Let's take this into another room." Kris suggested. "No point waking her up, she's had a long day."

Asriel gave him a nod of agreement,, and the two of them retired to the adjacent room, which contained a comfortable couch situated in front of a TV.

"So, you kissed her yet?" Asriel asked, a shit eating grin spreading across his face as he took a seat on the couch.

"It's not like that, Az." Kris groaned as he too took a seat. "We're just...friends. At least, that's how I think of her."

"I'm just teasing." Asriel laughed. "I know dating is the least of your concerns right now."

"Do you ever wish you had a stand?" Kris asked his friend, hoping to quickly change the subject.

"Well, I hadn't." Asriel replied, his smile quickly fading. "Not until now, at least. I feel so useless when I hear about what you and Susie had to go through." His voice carried such an undercurrent of sadness that Kris suddenly regretted bringing up the subject.

"Just having you here is enough, Az." Kris assured him. "You've been a big help already. In fact, I probably wouldn't have Susie with me now if it wasn't for you."

Thankfully, his friend's smile returned, even if it seemed a little forced. "Well, as long as you think I'm helping, I'm content." After some moments of awkward silence, Asriel piped up again. "Hey, since you've still got hours until it's time to head home, you want to boot up the game console for a while? We can let Susie play too if she wakes up."

Kris felt himself relax at the suggestion of doing a normal activity for the first time this week. Even his activities with Susie had been mostly stand related, and school wasn't exactly relaxing. "That'd be great, Az." he said with a pleased sigh. "I'll go get a pillow for Susie while you get the console ready."

"Aww, isn't that cute." Asriel teased as Kris took one of the couch pillows and carefully raised Susie's head to put it in place. After slowly lowering her head back down onto the pillow, he was rewarded with a sleepy, pleased sigh. Thankfully, he didn't seem to have woken her up. Before he returned to Asriel's side in the meeting room, he saved a mental image of Susie sleeping peacefully with that all too rare pleasant smile on her face. He would have taken an actual picture if he didn't think it would have been kind of creepy.

The rest of his afternoon was spent with Asriel, and for those few hours he almost forgot about the imminent threats. They were over all to quickly, however, and he soon found himself on his way home. Susie still hadn't woken up, but Asriel assured Kris that he'd keep an eye on her. As much as he would have liked to stick around longer, his mom would be wondering where he was soon. Given that he skipped school, he was surprised that he didn't have a dozen or so worried texts and calls already.

As he walked down the road towards his house, he was startled out of his thoughts by the loud sound of a motorcycle coming from behind him. He sighed in exasperation, already thinking he knew who the source of the sound was, and summoned his stand as the motorcycle approached him. Lancer drove in large loops around him for a good while, though no actual attacks were forthcoming. When the motorcycle finally came to a stop, Kris couldn't help but roll his eyes at the tremendous waste of time that the whole spectacle had been, but at least his own life was probably not in danger.

"You know, I was just about ready to enjoy my weekend." Kris said, already anticipating an annoying but ultimately insignificant "fight" with the young darkener. "But if you really insist on getting your a-" Before he finished the word, he realized just how young lancer actually was. Even if he was technically an enemy, he should still mind his language like he would around anyone that young. "On getting your butt kicked, then by all means, fight me."

"Hey, look, I'm not here to fight you." The darkener replied, with a hint of embarrassment in his voice.

"Then why bother showing up?" Kris asked, suddenly interested in why any darkener stand user would be here besides fighting. "Your father wants me dead, right?"

"Well...yeah." Lancer admitted, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "But...you know, sometimes, even people you love do something that you don't agree with. Maybe they didn't have any choice, but even so, you know it probably wasn't the right thing to do."

"Just get to the point, will you?" Kris told him.

"You know that weird darkener in that little castle? The one who's sweet enough to be the literal embodiment of diabetes?"

Kris didn't like where this was going. "Lancer. What happened to him?"

"Well...uh...the Knight found him, learned he had helped you, and..."

"And what?" Kris demanded, already worried about what fate he might have condemned Ralsei to by leaving him down there.

"Locked him up." Lancer said, alleviating Kris' fears somewhat.

"Why are you telling me this?" Kris asked him, grateful for the information, but still somewhat suspicious nonetheless.

"Because I can't stand seeing the knight make my dad do bad things, you know?" The sadness in Lancer's voice was now audible. "He's really great, and I know he wouldn't do that if he didn't have any other choice, but he just can't do anything about it, you know?"

"So, you're hoping I'll go save Ralsei." Kris sighed. "To be honest, this seems kind of suspicious, coming from you."

"Think what you want." Lancer mumbled back. "I just don't feel good about letting the little fruitcake sit down there, and I don't think my dad does either. He's really a good person...he's just...in some bad circumstances."

"You do realize I don't have a way of getting to the dark world, right?" Already having made up his mind to try and rescue Ralsei over the weekend, Kris was now trying to figure out how exactly he was going to do that.

Lancer shifted in his bike seat uncomfortably. "Look...I can meet you back here tomorrow and take you back to the dark world. If anyone asks, we can just say that you pulled some really nasty trick and just BARELY managed to take me hostage, right?"

It was probably a trap. But even so, he had to take the chance. He hoped Susie would be willing to go with him, because neither of them stood a chance alone. "All right, Lancer. Meet me back here tomorrow at noon, okay?"

Lancer scratched his head in confusion. "Noon?"

"Right, no sun down there." Kris murmured, realizing why Lancer was confused. "In that case, just meet me here at the same time tomorrow. I can use all day tomorrow to prepare."

"Gotcha." Lancer nodded. "See ya then."

With that, he drove off, leaving Kris alone with his thoughts.

The idea of returning to the dark world, to the knight's home turf, was a scary thought. That said, it was his fault that Ralsei was sitting in the Knight's dungeon right now. He should have insisted that the darkener come up to the light world when he and Susie had, but he had been to occupied with his own survival to think about it much.

He decided he'd think up the particulars with Susie when he saw her tomorrow. For now, he felt more tired than ever, and sleep sounded awfully good.

<\-- to be continued


	10. Memories of that Blood, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night before Kris' return to the dark world is filled with troubled sleep.

Sleep proved little comfort.

That night, Kris had a dream. A dream unlike any other he'd had before. The sensations were all vivid. He could feel, see, and hear everything as if he was actually there. 

He was walking through a cold, frozen waste. The chill wind blowing snow onto his face, which was thankfully mostly shielded by the hood of his thick coat. Looking around him, though certainly not of his own will, he saw other humans wearing thick winter gear like his and walking in the same direction he was.

"Hey, Dreemurr! You sure we're going the right way?" One of them shouted, his voice barely audible over the wind.

"Of course I am!" He found himself snapping back, his own voice sounding alien to him. "I wouldn't have brought you this way if I wasn't sure! Just shut up and keep going!"

After what felt like an agonizingly long time of trudging through the snow with the chill wind slowly seeping through his gear, Kris saw the looming shape of huge mountains in the distance, the setting sun just now beginning to fall behind them, taking it's comforting light with it. Though the reason wasn't clear in his own mind, he knew that they were what he was looking for. 

An inexplicable sense of both fear and longing filled him, and he knew that within those mountains were the answers to some deep, burning questions that he'd held all his life. It would be here, far from humanity and beyond the reach of help from those he loved that he would know his destiny. 

Somehow, he also knew that he wouldn't have to put up with these bothersome colleagues of his for much longer. Whatever answers were within those mountains were not for them. The great mountains of frozen rock called to him, and him alone. 

He could hear their faint, whispering voices on the wind. They called for him, and him alone.

That morning, he bolted awake in a cold sweat. The dream had felt so unbelievably real. Not just the physical sensations, but the feelings as well. The irritation at his companions, the happiness at the strange knowledge that they would soon be gone, and most disturbing of all, the longing for those monolithic spires of cold, unfeeling rock.

He chalked it up to stress. Mostly because he could think of no other option. He didn't feel well rested, but even so, he managed to drag himself out of bed and get ready for the day. After all, he had someone to save.


	11. Burn My Dread

Susie woke up with her head on a pillow, and a plate of unfinished sandwiches in front of her. For a moment, she thought she was still dreaming. That notion was dispelled when she noticed Asriel. If she was dreaming, he sure as hell wouldn't be there. The guy was somehow even weirder than Kris was, and she got a vague feeling that something wasn't quite right with him. Nevertheless, his lack of a stand made him harmless, so she wasn't too worried about being alone in a room with him.

"Where's Kris?" She groaned, still feeling a little groggy from the nap.

"He had to go home." Asriel told her. "Trust me, if his mom wasn't expecting him back, he would have stayed till you woke up. Next week will be his week with his dad, so he'll have more freedom to stay out later."

Jeez, she must have slept for a while if Kris needed to go home. "How long did I sleep?" She asked, hoping it hadn't been a whole day or something like that.

"Just a few hours." Asriel replied. "Sun's just starting to go down now."

"I better get going." She said gruffly, rising from her seat.

"Aren't you going to finish eating first? After all, you're in no hurry to get home, right?"

That second sentence made her pause, and almost sent a chill down her spine. How on earth did he know what her home life was like?

She almost snarled when she replied. "That's none of your business."

"My business is whatever I want it to be." He replied in an infuriatingly calm and self assured tone. "I'm not trying to tell you what to do, just suggesting that you eat in case something happens tomorrow morning."

"Why do you care?" She snapped back, becoming increasingly annoyed with his patronizing tone.

"I care because Kris needs you." The boss monster stated, his voice suddenly carrying a gravely serious inflection. "I can't help him, but you can. So I need you to be at your best, for his sake. You can understand that, right?"

She did get what he meant. He and Kris must have been better friends than she had first thought. "Fine. I'll take a few for the road." She said, grabbing a few sandwiches before heading back toward the door.

She was stopped once more in her tracks by Asriel's now stern voice. "Susie. Don't let anyone tell you who or what you are."

The words were sudden and unexpected, forcing her to take a few moments to parse what he was saying.

"It doesn't matter what people say about you." He continued. "All that matters is the kind of person you are when nobody's watching. Those moments where nobody will hold you accountable for your actions are the ones that really determine who you are."

Susie turned to give him a confused look before walking out the door. "Whatever, weirdo." She grumbled as she left, glad to be leaving Asriel behind for now. He was fine enough when Kris was around, if a little crude, but he had seemed a lot stranger once Kris was gone.

Still, she couldn't help but give some thought to his parting words to her. More specifically the question of how he had found words that hit so close to home for her. It felt like he knew way too much.

However she still felt too tired to really think very hard about it, and decided to pay the words no mind. Instead, she increased her pace so that she could get back home and consequently to bed as soon as possible.

Early to bed and early to rise turned out to be especially true for her that night, as she woke up before even her mother was awake.

Eager to play a video game for the first time, especially with the first friend she'd ever had, she hurried out of the house and headed toward her and Kris' usual meeting spot.

"Morning, Susie." He greeted her, sounding more alert and awake than he usually did at this time of day.

"So...uh...we going to your dad's place, then?" She asked a little hesitantly, hoping that Kris hadn't changed his mind about that.

"Oh, right." Kris replied, apparently having forgotten about his offer the previous day. "You see, about that..."

Susie felt her heart sink a little. She should have expected him to change his mind, but it didn't make it any less disappointing.

"I want to go back to the dark world today."

The statement shocked all the disappointment out of her, replacing it with utter disbelief and a mounting dread.

"Did you lose your mind or something, freak?" She practically shouted the question at him. The mere idea of going back to the knight's home turf legitimately scared her, considering what almost happened the last time they faced him.

"Maybe." He replied flatly. "Lancer came by yesterday. Apparently Ralsei got locked up for helping us."

Susie struggled to remember the name for a moment. She hadn't really been paying attention at the time. "You mean that little furry pipsqueak in the castle? You want to go to the dark world for HIM, and all because one of our ENEMIES told you about it!?"

"I know it sounds crazy when you put it that way." He said, still sounding as calm as ever. "But Lancer's harmless. We were never in any real danger while we were "fighting" him, and he did seem sincere when I talked to him."

She could barely believe what she was hearing. If he was really intent on going to the dark world, she might have no choice but to go with him. "Is it really worth it, Kris? After all, it's not our fault that the knight locked the little furby up."

"I'm not going to argue with you about it." Kris sighed. "I'm going. Whether I'm going with or without you is up to you."

Damn it, he wasn't even going to give her a chance to try to talk him out of it. She really did have no choice, then.

"Fine." She grumbled. "I'll go with you."

"I knew I could count you." He told her. "Lancer will meet us here this evening and take us to the dark world. We can hang out at my dad's while we wait, if you'd like."

Well, if she was going to die in the dark world, she supposed she should at least have some fun beforehand. "Sure, freak. I guess we might as well."

Kris gave her a small smile, and the two of them made their way to his father's house. Once they arrived, Kris unlocked the door and showed Susie inside.

The interior was neat and tidy, with rooms that all contained some kind of potted plant or another in it. Kris eagerly showed her into the living room, where a large couch sat in front of a modestly sized television. He immediately knelt down in front of the television and began fiddling with a game console that sat next to it while Susie took a seat on the couch.

"You sure your dad won't mind us doing this while he's out of the house?" Susie asked him.

"He gave me a key so that I could do exactly this kind of thing." Kris replied, handing Susie one of the controllers as he took a seat next to her. "He won't mind one bit. In fact, he'd probably be happy about it."

Kris turned on the TV, revealing the game to be one of those fighting games Susie had always been wanting to try. Kris spent a couple hours just teaching her how to play before they actually got to playing seriously.

It was a lot more fun than she anticipated. She and Kris exchanged insults, sure, but they were all clearly banter. After a while, Susie found herself wishing that it would never end.

Of course, like anything good, it did end. After a long while of playing, with breaks for snacks, Kris told her that it was time to go.

With no small amount of reluctance, Susie followed him out of the house and down to the street corner where Lancer was waiting.

"Oh, there you are!" The short darkener greeted them with an almost inappropriate enthusiasm, given what they were about to do. "I didn't expect her to be tagging along too, but the more the merrier."

"Shut it, twerp." She growled, not amused or in the mood for the boy's overly happy tone.

Lancer's face took on a dejected look for a moment before he regained his composure, almost forcing a smile back on his face as he addressed Kris. "All right, I can get you pretty close to the prisons, but you'll still have a little ways to walk before you find fluff-face."

"That's fine." Kris told him with a nod. "Just get us as close as you can without getting in trouble."

With that prompting, Lancer summoned his stand and revved the engine, which slowly began to create a pitch black void a meter or so in front of him.

"Follow me, punk-a-roos!" He called back as he drove through the rift, with Kris following close behind.

With one last look around at her world, Susie followed after him. It felt like passing into the gates of hell itself, but it was better than letting her only friend in the world go to his death alone.

They emerged from the rift in a large, ornate hallway with large pillars acting as supports. To their right was a large metal door with some bars for windows.

Despite the situation, she took a moment to admire the outfits that the dark world gave her and Kris. She had no idea why their clothing changed when they traveled between worlds, but she appreciated it all the same. In fact. she wished she was able to dress like this back in her world. Taking another look at Kris' outfit, she realized his mom probably wouldn't let him wear stuff like that if she had any say in it. Still, the idea was nice.

"That's the door to the dungeon right there." Lancer said, pointing to the door in question. "Just be careful, it locks from the outside."

"Thanks, Lancer." Kris replied. "We'll handle it from here. Where should we meet you when we need a ride out?"

"I'll be in the room on that end of the hall!" He called back as he drove off, pointing in the direction he was riding. "Just hurry up, okay? I can't stick around forever!"

Susie realized what the door locking from the outside meant. Someone was going to have to stay behind and make sure they didn't get locked in.

"So, which of us is staying at the door?" Susie asked, already half guessing who the best person for the job would be.

"Well, I think you could probably last longer in a fight against the knight than I could if he comes around. Though that's a worst case scenario. I still think it would work best if you guarded the door, as much as I hate to split up."

Susie nodded solemnly in response. "I understand. Just be quick about it. Okay freak?"

"I'll be as quick as I can." Kris assured her, unlocking the door to the dungeons and heading inside. "You be safe too, okay?"

"No promises." She replied, half jokingly, as the human walked into the darkness on the other side of the door.

She waited there, in front of the door, for what seemed like ages. The calm quiet of the hallway combined with the unnerving openness was far from comforting, putting her on edge the whole time.

After a while, a dark void began to tear open some meters in front of her. A chill ran through her as she realized that it probably wasn't Lancer.

Her fears were confirmed when the familiar form of the knight emerged from the rift, his sword and shield at the ready.

This was it. This was the day she died. There was no way she was going to be able to take him alone. For a moment, she considered running, but his words gave pause to any sort of coherent thought process she might have had.

"You came here willingly? With the human, I assume?"

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and replied to him. Maybe if she just kept him talking, Kris would come back before she had to try to fight the Knight.

"Yeah. Wasn't my idea, or my first choice of how to spend the day."

"I understand." He replied with a chillingly genial tone. "I may have...been overly hasty in labeling you an enemy, after all."

His words surprised her. She had assumed that he wanted to kill all lightener stand users, so what did he mean by that?

"What do you mean?" She asked, the tremble in her voice more obvious than she would have liked.

"You are a fierce warrior. You and your companion have already killed two of my finest warriors, thought their methods were rather distasteful, and I shall not miss them. I would not like to reward valor such as yours with death if I can help it. Allow me to pass, and I swear I shall allow you to return to the light world unharmed. furthermore, I shall also forbid my assassins from targeting you in the future, given that you never take up arms against me."

Susie almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. An opportunity to return to normal life, and all she had to do was step out of the way. Of course, doing that would be a death sentence to Kris. Was her old life without him really worth betraying him like that?

No. No it wasn't. Being all alone like that had been her own personal hell. There was no way she was going to go back to it, not without a fight.

Mustering her courage, she steadied her voice and replied to the Knight. "You mean you expect me to betray my only friend in the whole world, just to go back to being alone? honestly I'm kind of insulted."

"Ah. So it is companionship you seek." The stand commented with a hint of surprise in his tone. "That I can also give you. I have a few openings in my ranks thanks to your work. A warrior like you would be well respected among my soldiers, assuming you respect them in kind. Think about it. You could bring to heel all who have scorned you during your time in the light world, and receive adulation from your peers for it. Would that not please you?"

The idea did appeal to her, more than a little. After all, she wasn't that fond of the light world. Why should she care if the Knight conquered it? Maybe being a part of the conquering army would even be fun. The only thing stopping her from saying yes in that very moment was Kris. What would he think of her for agreeing?

Then it occurred to her that he wouldn't be around to care, or to belittle her for it. The knight would kill him for sure if she let him pass. Kris would probably assume she had just lost to him. He would never have to know what she had done.

"But you'll know." A little voice in the back of her mind piped up. It was right, of course. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she betrayed Kris for an easy way out. Besides, if there was anything worth dying for, it would be her first and only real friend.

"Nah." She replied, a smirk growing on her face. "Kicking your ass sounds like the most satisfying thing in the world right now."

"Such loyalty to your friends makes me wish you were born a darkener." the Knight sighed. "Oh well. To battle, then!"

His declaration prompted Susie to call her stand forth. Much to her surprise, it looked different now. It's horns and face were now that of a dragon's, and the jacket had wing-like protrusions coming off the sides. Most notable, however, was how it glowed now. The dragon-being's scales were practically glowing with a fiery garnet light, as did the blade of the large long axe it now held.

The change in appearance was clearly not lost on the knight, who stopped in his tracks to assess her new stand.

"Interesting." He murmured. "A change in a stand is only caused by a change in one's soul. Show me the strength of your resolve, lightener!"

With that challenge, he surged forward toward her with his sword drawn. Susie, acting purely on instinct, took her stand's axe and swung at the Knight with a swift overhead swing.

Her axe moved much faster than either she or the knight expected, impacting with his head before he could react and continuing to cut him straight down the middle.

Susie took a few steps back as she watched the armor fall to the floor, a surge of pride coming over her. She had actually done it. The knight was dead, or looked dead at least.

This line of thinking was abruptly cut off by a black mist leaking out from underneath the armor, which slowly formed into a vaguely humanoid shape in the air above the armor.

"That was annoying." The voice was raspy, and seemed to come from all around her. "That armor took weeks to forge. I will be without a...pleasing form until then. Nevertheless, you have clearly grown stronger, but it shall not avail you here. Prepare yourself!"

Of course it wouldn't have been that easy. Still, Susie felt heartened by that initial success. Maybe she could still beat him here, or at least hold him off long enough for Kris to get back.

Whatever would happen afterward, she could at least be safe in the knowledge that she had made the right choice.

<\-- To be continued


	12. The Warriors of Prophecy

Kris walked carefully down the dark, rough staircase, his footsteps echoing down with every step he took. Despite lancer's sincerity, he couldn't help but feel as if he had brought himself and Susie into a very bad situation. He hadn't really counted on having to split up, but he probably should have considered the possibility.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he found himself in a long, dark hallway with smooth, tiled walls. At this point the conspicuous lack of guards was making him wonder if this was even the prison at all, but he figured he didn't really have any choice but to continue.

After a few more minutes of walking, passing through a few empty rooms that looked like guard posts, Kris came to a hallway with cell doors lining the sides.

It seemed like lancer had been telling the truth after all, and yet something still seemed wrong. It was all too quiet, and there seemed to be no guards whatsoever.

Fuck it. Trap or not, he owed it to Ralsei to go in anyway.

"Hey, Ralsei! You there?" He called out, hoping he would get a response so he could quickly find the darkener's cell.

"Kris, is that you?" He heard a meek voice respond from one of the cells closest to him.

Wasting no time, Kris hurried over to the cell the voice was coming from and used his stand to break the lock on the door, opening it to reveal the small, furry darkener standing behind it.

"Sorry I took so long." Kris said apologetically.

"Oh, it's really no problem!" Ralsei replied, surprisingly cheerful sounding for someone who had just been locked up. "It was probably my fault for letting myself get put int here in the first place."

Not knowing exactly what to say to a statement like that, Kris decided to change the topic. "Do you know why there aren't any guards down here?"

"Um...there usually are." Ralsei answered with bemusement. "In fact, I think the guard should have changed a while ago."

"Then we better get out of here before someone realizes what's going on." Kris told the darkener. "Follow me."

Ralsei gave Kris a nod of consent, and the two set off back the way Kris had come.

Everything looked clear, and for a while Kris thought they might actually get out without anything annoying happening.

That hope was quickly squashed when the doors of one of the guard stations suddenly slammed shut as Kris and Ralsei entered it.

A quick attempt to break open the wooden doors revealed to Kris that they were suddenly a lot stringer than they looked, and he probably wasn't going to get them open anytime soon.  
  
"Thou shan't have any luck with that door, knave!" Came a voice that sounded like it was emanating from all around them. "Thou hast been trapped by the Duke of puzzles: Rouxls Kaard! Art thou ready to test your feeble mind against mine, lightener?"

Kris had to restrain himself from sighing in relief. This guy already sounded like he was more bark than bite.

"Yeah. Sure." Kris replied flatly. "But hurry up with it, okay?"

"Art thou not intimidated?" The voice called back indignantly. "Dost thou not realize thou hast been caught by my unbeatable stand: 'Modern Major General?'"

"Everyone say their stand is unbeatable right before they lose." Kris replied. Not entirely confident in that statement given that he'd only been in 3 or 4 fights by this point, but still hoping it would discourage his opponent.

"Is that so?" came the reply. "Well, I'm certain thou hast never encountered a stand like mine before! You see, Modern Major General has the ability to turn any room into a puzzle. In your case, I've made it so that those doors in the guard room won't open until you solve my unbeatable puzzle!"

Kris gave the room another once over in an attempt to find any trace of a puzzle, but failed to find anything aside from the tables, chairs, and lamps that had been there when he entered.

"Are we talking literally unsolvable or was that supposed to be an insult to my intelligence?" Kris asked, suddenly realizing that this might end up being harder than he first thought.

"Now now, don't go accusing me of foul play." came Duke Kaard's wounded sounding reply. "I can only create puzzles that I can solve myself, so I guarantee thou that there IS a solution. Not that thou possess the capacity to find it. The challenge is simple: open the doors and get out of the room...before the walls close in and crush you."

With that final declaration, the walls did indeed begin to slowly but surely close in.

"Kris! What are we going to do?" He heard Ralsei squeak fearfully behind him.

Kris couldn't think of a reassuring reply, so he stayed silent and focused himself on trying to figure out the puzzle.

Nothing about the room had changed, and yet Kaard was claiming this was a puzzle he could solve himself. That either meant he was incredibly clever, or using some extremely simple trick.

His whole "unsolvable puzzle" claim reminded Kris of something. There used to be a game he played when he was younger that was about puzzle building. Some people made supposedly impossible puzzles that gave Kris quite a few fits until he had figured out their trick. Maybe, just maybe...

Turning around to examine the wall by the door, and using his stand's enhanced vision, he saw it.

"Hey, Ralsei." He said, turning to the small darkener. "You want a chance to solve it too?"

Ralsei looked at him in utter confusion and panic. "W-what do you mean? If you've solved it than finish it please! B-before the walls squish us!"

Kris shrugged at him nonchalantly. "All right. It's just so simple that I didn't want you to feel silly for not getting it."

Having given his new friend a fair shot, Kris casually pressed the tiny red button that had been positioned just to the right of the door they entered through. The button stopped the movement of the walls and made the doors at both ends of the room swing wide open, revealing the Duke Kaard himself.

"I..." The Duke stared in near stunned silence at the now open door, as if something completely unbelievable had just happened.

"GOD...DAMN IT" He suddenly shouted, his sophisticated sounding speech pattern breaking down.

Kris simply strode quickly out of the room, motioning for Ralsei to follow him, and walked past the astonished Duke.

"Hey. Do you want me to beat you up a bit so that the knight doesn't think you let me go?" He asked, turning back around for a moment.

"Uh...I think I'll pass." Rouxls mumbled, still staring awestruck at the open door.

Kris then turned and headed up the stairs with Ralsei in tow, speeding up as he heard the sounds of battle coming from the top of the stairs.

"Stay behind me, no matter what." He told Ralsei as they neared the top. "We're going to need you."

As they reached the top of the stairs, they were treated to the sight of Susie locked in combat with what looked like a cloud of black vapor.

The cloud retreated as Kris rushed to her side with Ralsei following close behind him. It was only then that Kris noticed the split open suit of armor that sat on the floor a few meters away.

"Susie, is that thing..." Kris began, trying to process everything he was seeing, including the seemingly sudden changes to Susie's stand.

"Yeah." Susie panted back, clearly appreciating the chance to catch her breath. "That's the knight."

"You really can't get any good help these days, can you?" Said a voice that Kris assumed was the Knight's, though it was now a raspy, grating voice that seemed to come from all sides rather than the noble sounding one he had during their first meeting. "I'll have to have words with the good Duke Kaard."

"Why?" Ralsei suddenly blurted out, despite still hiding mostly behind Kris. "Why are you so intent on killing them?"

  
The knight paused his movement, taking the time to coalesce himself into a vaguely humanoid shape again. "For the good of the people." He replied, and likely noticing the confused looks from Susie and Ralsei, continued speaking.

"My war to unite the dark world was long and bloody, and yet inevitable. Had I not done so, the petty kings would have wasted far more lives fighting amongst themselves in indecisive skirmishes for years to come. But the unity will not last unless the kingdom has an enemy. A group of people that they can unite against. For this I chose the lighteners, a people who are easy to be envious of.

A few rewritten history books later, and a few impassioned speeches about the vile fiends who stole the sunlight from us, and the people are unwaveringly united against this supposed ancient oppressor. I do not desire to conquer the light world. No, that would only open the possibility of civil war once again. I desire an eternal state of war, and to achieve that, I must simply ensure that the lighteners have no means of toppling our greatest warriors, our stand users."

Kris was speechless. The whole idea sounded completely insane, but he didn't even know how to begin to deconstruct it.

"That doesn't answer the question." Susie growled. "Why us specifically? We weren't about to go defending the world until you made us your enemy."

"Ah, and now for this." the knight sighed. "I did not originally plan to target you specifically, but circumstances have forced my hand.

My user is a wretched man. A worthless, lazy slob of a King who cares not even for his own son. It is my great shame to be bound to one like him, even if he holds no sway over my actions. I had almost given up hope that I would ever truly be free from him, until I met: 'he who longs for heaven.'

It was that man who gave me one simple task. If I killed the dreemurr's child, I would receive the arrow. The item I need to free myself from my user. Indeed, it brings me great displeasure to target ones as young as you three, but no price is too great for my freedom."

It was a lot to take in at once. So much that the hallway stood quiet for a few long moments.

Up till now, Kris had considered whoever had the arrow to be neutral at worst, if not outright an ally due to them giving Susie a stand, but this realization meant they had another enemy lurking somewhere in their world. Still, they had to focus on the imminent threat, at least for now.

"All right." Kris said finally. "Then we don't have any more reason to talk."

"Indeed." The knight replied, sounding pleased. "Let us fight, then. I tire of talking."

Kris and Susie gave each other a nod before summoning their stands simultaneously, bracing for the knight's assault.

In his gaseous form, the Knight could bend and twist himself in all sorts of unnatural ways in order to avoid Kris and Susie's attacks. His less material form also failed to make him any less lethal, as he was able to produce sharp "blades" of shadow that cut just as painfully as his sword used to.

Susie's stand seemed faster, which helped considerably. Yet despite this, the battle seemed like it was going to go the same way as their first clash with the knight.

Suddenly, Kris realized something. His wounds were healing, as were Susie's. Better yet, they were healing as fast as the Knight could make them.

"My stand's finally working!" He heard Ralsei call out. "I think he finally got angry!"

Kris picked this moment to send his stand at the Knight in a direct attack, ignoring the multitude of cuts it received on the way. The aggression and heedlessness of his injuries seemed to catch the Knight by surprise, and allowed Kris to send his sword into the center of the shadowy mass.

The Knight emitted a loud cry of pain in response, and quickly backed away from the trio.

"Some...other time..." the Knight gasped, before quickly disappearing into the floor.

Kris and Susie exchanged a triumphant smile, followed by a loud high five. They had done it. They had finally beat the Knight in a fight.

"Ralsei." Kris said, turning to give him a high five as well. "Thanks. We wouldn't have been able to do that one without you."

"Yeah." Susie agreed, nodding her head slightly. "Even I gotta admit, you were a big help."

Ralsei looked a little sheepish at the praise, seemingly not able to make eye contact. "Well, it was the least I could do. After all, I'm the reason you came down here in the first place."

From the far side of the hallway, they suddenly heard the sound of Lancer's engine revving.

"Come on." Kris called back to his comrades as he started toward the noise. "Lancer must be getting a portal ready. Let's get out of here before the knight comes back with friends."

A short sprint across the hall later, and the trio were walking through a portal back to the relative safety of the light world. Though even that, in Kris' mind, was greatly diminished by the revelation of "he who longs for heaven."

Still, it would be good to see the sun again.

<\-- to be continued


	13. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne meets one of Asgore's old friends from many years ago.

Undyne drew a good deal of nervous looks as she stepped into the train station, still in her full uniform. According to Asgore, his guest was supposed to be arriving about now.

Normally trains going in and out of Hometown were sparsely populated, but there were more people coming and going lately. Probably because of the still unsolved incident at the librarby.

Just at that moment, she saw them. Stepping out of the train was a human, easily distinguished from the crowd of monsters by their fair looking skin and short, messy brown hair. She assumed that the trenchcoat they wore was supposed to help them blend in somehow, but that didn't really help among monsters.

As she approached the human, she noticed a look of recognition coming over their face, as if they were seeing an old friend after a long time. It struck her as odd, since she was certain that Kris was the only human she'd ever met before.

"You Asgore's friend?" She asked gruffly, unable to shake some odd feeling that this human was both familiar and strange in equal measure.

"That's me." The human replied with a smile. "You must be Undyne. Asgore's told me a lot of good things about you."

"Yeah, that's me." She said, not able to cleanse the confusion in her own voice. "Come on, the patrol car's parked outside the station."

"All right. Do I get to ride in the back?" The human chuckled slightly at their own joke. "I'm Frisk, by the way. Nice to finally meet you."

"You're awfully cheerful for someone who's here to solve a murder case." Undyne grumbled back. Something about this human's constantly upbeat attitude seemed off, though she hoped it'd grow on her after a while.

Frisk's smile never broke for a second, though it become more of a nostalgic look. "This isn't exactly my first rodeo, you know? I'm just happy to be able to see an old friend again, and hopefully make some new ones."

Undyne decided not to continue that line of conversation, and instead, began to fill Frisk in on the odd happenings of the last week. That lasted until they reached Asgore's house, at which point she parked the car in his driveway and walked with Frisk up to the front door, where they were both greeted enthusiastically by a relieved looking Asgore.

As they all headed into Asgore's dining room to discuss the case, Undyne observed that the two of them talked like they had known each other for a long time, and wondered why he had never mentioned the human to her.

As they were about to sit down, Asgore suddenly stopped, seemingly remembering something. "Oh, Undyne. Would you mind getting the tea from the kitchen? I seem to have forgotten to get it out in my eagerness to see you both tonight."

"No problem." She replied, turning toward the kitchen. "Sounds like you two have a lot of catching up to do anyway. I won't be long."

Just as she was closing the kitchen door behind her, she heard Asgore say something in a whispered tone, as if it was some grave secret.

"Frisk...it isn't HIM, right?"

She almost didn't believe it, but his voice was full of what sounded like fear.

Deciding that she wanted to hear where this was going, she left the door just barely cracked open, enough to let Asgore's loud whispers through.

"I can't say that it isn't." She heard Frisk sigh back. "That's part of the reason I got here as quick as I could."

"But you said it would be a hundred years before he came back. It'll only have been ten in a few months!" Asgore sounded desperate, though Undyne had no clue what they were talking about, it was clear that it must be pretty serious.

"To be honest, a hundred years was more of an average than an actual prediction." Frisk replied apologetically. "The place he returns to after his defeat is a place where time has no meaning. His return could take anywhere from mere months, to hundreds of years. There's a chance we got unlucky."

  
Even had the door been closed, Undyne was sure she would have heard the groan of despair that Asgore let out.

"Then...what do we do? I'm not sure I could handle facing that thing again, but I definitely don't want to drag Undyne into that."

"Don't assume it's anything like that, okay?" Frisk spoke with a calm, reassuring voice. "You called me here to investigate, right? Then let's not jump to any conclusions yet. Just...be open to all the possibilities until we rule them out."

"You're right." Asgore replied with a slightly sorrowful chuckle. "I do worry too much, don't I? Anyway, I wonder what's taking Undyne so long. We should get down to business as soon as we can."

Undyne took that as her queue to go and get the platter of tea and snacks that Asgore had left in the kitchen and bring it out as casually as possible.

"Sorry about that." She said as she exited the kitchen. "I just got a little distracted by some of the stuff in there."

"I should teach you how to cook sometime, if you're that interested." Asgore said with a jolly laugh. "Now then, Frisk here has made a living as a detective who specializes in paranormal cases, which as you may have guessed tends to mean stand related incidents."

"Are there a lot of those?" Undyne asked, taking a seat next to Asgore.

"You'd be surprised." Frisk replied with a smile. "Certainly enough to make a living off of."

"What's your plan, then?" She asked. "We don't even know for sure if this is stand related, and even if we did, there's a lot of missing information about the case. We don't even know who was killed, let alone why someone might have wanted to off them."

"Given what you've told me, I don't think we'll be able to find that out unless we find the person who did the killing." Frisk stated, a professional tone suddenly coming into their voice.  
"My plan is to investigate everybody who was at the library the day of the incident and try to determine who among them are stand users. After that, we'll figure out what to do."

"That's going to be a lot of people." Undyne grumbled.

Frisk gave her a shrug in response. "Well, unless you've got a better idea, the two of us are going to be doing a lot of work together for the foreseeable future."

Undyne nodded and gave a grunt of agreement, and the conversation turned to more minuet details of the investigation.

Despite there finally being something interesting happening in her boring, quiet hometown, Undyne was more curious about what Asgore had said while she was getting the tea. What had happened to him ten years ago, and why was it so bad that he didn't want to tell her about it?

Still, not wanting to upset him, she held her tongue and attempted to focus herself on the investigation at hand. It was looking more and more like a long and arduous ordeal to reach the truth of the matter.

<\-- To be continued


	14. Crazy, Noisy, Bizare Hometown

"Look, Kris. That kid looks way too young to stay in my house for a prolonged period of time." Asriel said, much to Kris' disappointment. He had been hoping that Asriel would be willing to let Ralsei stay at his place, and thus allow Kris to avoid explaining the darkener to his parents.

"Come on, Az." Kris pleaded. "How am I supposed to explain him to my mom?"

Asriel shrugged. "You're smart. Think of something. It's not like your mom is going to complain about looking after your new friend. Besides, you remember what you got into when I left you alone in my place, right?"

Kris cringed briefly at the memory. "Yeah, the more I think about this, the more it seems like a bad idea. I'll just have to think up a story to tell my mom, I guess."

"I know you'll figure it out." Asriel replied with a warm smile. "You've done a good job adapting to your...unique scenario."

"It's adapt or die, I guess." Kris shrugged. "The sudden influx of friends has helped though." Kris turned back to look at Susie and Ralsei, who were standing a fair distance away on the sidewalk, waiting for him to finish his conversation.

"By the way." He said, turning back to Asriel. "Will I see you at church tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'll be there." Asriel replied happily. "You gonna try to get Susie to come too?"

"Only because leaving her alone would be dangerous. Anyway, I better get going. See you tomorrow, Az."

"See you then, Kris." Asriel said, waving Kris good bye as he closed the door.

"No dice. You're going to have to stay with my mom." Kris said, shaking his head a little at Ralsei as he walked back to the sidewalk.

"Sorry for all the trouble." The darkener replied meekly.

"For crying out loud." Susie groaned. "Stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault."

Noticing Ralesi about to speak, Susie snapped at him again, "And don't apologize for apologizing so much either!"

"Sun's getting low." Kris sighed, already wondering how he would manage to get Susie to go easy on Ralsei without pissing her off too much. "I'll take Ralsei back to my mom's place and head to bed. Susie, you be careful on the way home, okay? The Knight's probably pissed about the bloody nose we just gave him."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Susie said as she started walking back home. "The two of you better be careful too, okay? I can't kick the Knight's ass if you do something stupid and die."

"Love you too, Susie." Kris said sarcastically. See you tomorrow.

Kris spent practically the entire walk home thinking of how to explain Ralsei to his mom. In the end he settled with: "orphan from a bad town" story.

Much to his surprise, his mom bought it without any fuss. In fact, she was surprisingly enthusiastic at the prospect of taking care of Ralsei.

Dinner consisted entirely of Kris' mother asking Ralsei all kinds of questions, and Kris trying very hard not to sweat as he hoped the darkener didn't accidentally spill something about the dark world.

Fortunately, that never happened. Ralsei proved surprisingly good at thinking on his feet, and Kris was eventually able to retire to his room.

As he collapsed onto his bed, he suddenly remembered his dream from the night before. The thought of having another dream like that scared him enough that for a while, he thought he wouldn't be able to get to sleep. Fortunately, the exertion of the day's events meant that he was more than tired enough to drift into merciful slumber after an hour or two of tossing and turning.

Church the next day was a welcome, relaxing event considering everything else that was going on. Though even the promise of doughnuts at the after-mass socializing time wasn't enough to convince Susie to join Kris for mass. Instead, she elected to hang around outside and keep an eye out for anything weird.

Ralsei, on the other hand, seemed excited to experience the service. Though by the end of it he seemed more interested in learning what a doughnut was.

During the after-mass gathering, while Kris, Asriel, and Ralsei were enjoying the snacks and his mother was busy socializing with the other equally hawkish mothers, the three of them were approached by none other than Father Alvin.

"It's about time you had a little brother, Kris." The kindly priest said, looking at Ralsei. Then, after a longer look at Kris, his expression dimmed a little.

"Is there something troubling you, Kris?" He asked, suddenly sounding concerned.

"Did you need to use your stand to tell?" Kris asked in reply.

Father Alvin gave him a surprised look, followed by a nervous glance toward Ralsei.

"It's all right." Kris assured the priest. "He's a stand user too, and Az here knows about stands."

Father Alvin breathed a sigh of relief. "Hmm, stand users really do attract other stand users, don't they?"

"What's your stand?" Ralsei piped up eagerly.

Both Kris and Father Alvin gave the room a once over, looking around for shady individuals. Kris had had it drilled into him by Asriel that talking about your stand if an enemy might be around was a bad idea. Not that Father Alvin's stand was any good in a fight anyway, but it wouldn't do to let an enemy know that.

Apparently convinced that there wasn't any danger, Father Alvin addressed Ralsei. "It doesn't have a form, but it allows me to see into the hearts of others. I tend not to use it much, however, as I wouldn't want to violate people's privacy."

"That's neat!" Ralsei chirped. "Mine can heal people! But only if the wounds were made in anger, which makes it less useful than it could be, I guess."

"It's a wonderful ability, child." Alvin said with a smile. "It's rare to see such a pure ability. It warms my old heart."

"Must be more stand users than I thought in town." Asriel mused. "Here I thought Kris and his dad were the only ones."

"Weren't you the one who told me that stand users attract other stand users?" Kris asked him.

"Well...yeah." Asriel replied. "Guess I didn't figure they'd be people we know."

"So Kris, what's bothering you?" Alvin asked. "If you don't mind my asking."

"School." He replied flatly, wanting to keep this topic as brief as possible. Talking about the dark world with his mom nearby was not something he wanted to do.

"Ah, that's normal for one your age, I suppose." Father Alvin said with a nod. "Well, I wish I could help with that, Kris, but I'm afraid the only advice I can give is to study hard. Anyway, I had best not bother you anymore. Have a good day, Kris." With that, Father Alvin took his leave of the three, seemingly vanishing into the crowd of churchgoers.

"About time I got going too." Asriel said with a sigh, sitting up from his chair.

"See you around, Az." Kris said. "Be safe out there."

"Since when have I been anything but careful?" Asriel replied with a smile. "Don't let Susie be too rough with you, eh?"

Left alone with Ralesi, Kris found that making conversation with him came much more easily then it did with Susie. Though he figured that was largely due to how curious the darkener was about practically everything.

When it was finally time to go, Kris realized he hadn't actually bothered to plan out the rest of their day. He supposed he'd have to make it up as he went along. He could probably get lunch with Susie and Ralsei if nothing interrupted them, and after that, who knew?

Either way, he was glad to finally have a normal day off for what felt like the first time in ages.

A few hours later, the crowd that had gathered for the after-service refreshments had dispersed. This left the priest pretty much alone in the church aside from the occasional maintenance crew when they were needed. He didn't mind this of course, as it left him time to reflect on spiritual matters as well as personal ones.

The usual emptiness made it all the more surprising when his old friends Asgore and Frisk, accompanied by Undyne, entered the church as he was dusting some of the less touched areas near the altar.

"Ah, Frisk!" He exclaimed, moving to meet the group in the middle of the large room. "What's the occasion?"

"I wish I could say it was just a friendly visit." Frisk said with a slight smile. "But I'm afraid we're going to need your help on an investigation."

"It's related to the...incident in the library earlier this week." Asgore explained with a solemn tone. "We're going to be questioning a lot of people, and we need a lie detector of sorts."

"Just like old times, eh?" The old priest remarked. "Well, I'll certainly be glad to help. When do we start?"

"Tomorrow." Undyne answered. "We've still got a few preparations to make, and we wouldn't want to keep you from the evening service."

"Very thoughtful of you." The priest hummed, "I'll meet you three tomorrow outside the station, then?"

"That would be great." Asgore said with a warm smile. "Thank you for being so willing to help, old friend."

With that, the four exchanged farewells, and Father Alvin was left alone in the church once again. Suddenly wondering what might be going on in his peaceful little town, he decided to retreat into one of the back rooms to think.

After only a few minutes of reading and pondering, he was roused by the sound of the door opening.

The first thing he saw was the vacuum cleaner.

The second thing he saw was the stand pushing it. A tall, humanoid figure. It's form completely made up of shimmering crystals that seemed to shine with all sorts of varying colors.

"I really hate to do this, father." It spoke, despite not having a mouth.

It was only then he realized what the vacuum cleaner was for. With nothing else to do, and fear welling up inside him, he used his stand's ability on the intruder.

"Ah...I see." He muttered. "I wish now I had read your heart when we first met. All of this is..."

"Hard to believe, I know." The stand replied. "But surely you see that the ends justify the means. A better world for everyone is worth a few lives, right?"

"All this..to achieve heaven. W-where did you even find out about that?" the priest stuttered, "That information was lost a long time ago, and for very good reason!"

"You can ask the angel that in the afterlife, father." The stand sighed. "Do you want time for a prayer before I do what I've come to do?"

Taking a deep breath, the priest calmed his trembling hands. There wasn't really anything he could do. There wasn't any time to make a call, or write a note. His only real regret would that he couldn't leave any evidence behind.

"No." He sighed. "I've made my peace with the angel. I only hope that you can do the same before your own death."

"That's good." The stand said, before proceeding to look around the room quizzically for a few long moments. "Uhh...where's the power outlet?"

Father Alvin made no reply, merely gesturing over to the spot where a chair sat in front of the outlet.

"Ah, thanks."

<\-- To be Continued


	15. Bird is the word, Part 1

Kris slept soundly that Sunday night. So soundly, in fact, that he awoke to the feeling of being gently shaken awake.

"Hey, Kris. Mom says you gotta wake up!" He heard Ralesi's voice calling. "You've got a test at school today, remember?"

At the word "test" he bolted upright. During the excitement of the past few days, he had genuinely forgot about the upcoming test.

Bolting out of bed, he began gathering his things for school.

"Thanks, Ralesi!" He called back to the darkener as he hurried out of his room and downstairs to grab breakfast.

After a quick breakfast, he went outside to meet Susie at their usual meeting place.

"Morning, Susie." He greeted her. "You ready for the test today?"

"What? We've got a test?" She groaned sleepily. "Geez, with everything happening lately I think I just forgot."

"So did I." He admitted. "I still think I can handle it pretty well though. How about you?"

"Do I look like the kind of person who studies?" She asked, probably rhetorically.

"Try your best anyway." Kris told her. "Neither of us can afford to get expelled at a time like this."

Susie simply gave him a nod in response, and the two of them walked to school in a thankfully undisturbed peace.

As they entered the classroom and took their seats, Kris noted that the number of worried looks he got when he was seen with Susie had greatly decreased. Evidently it was becoming clear that she wasn't going to eviscerate him as most of the school had suspected at first.

As Alphys passed out the tests, Kris felt a wave of relief pass through him as he looked over the paper. The material was all stuff he had studied before his trip to the dark world, and he hadn't forgotten it during the past week either.

However, as he picked up his pencil and went to put words on the paper, he suddenly found he couldn't think of the answer. It was like a bad case of writer's block, but for mathematics instead.

Before he knew it, the test time was over and he only had a blank paper to show for it. As he put his pencil down in frustration, he suddenly felt everything he had been trying to remember come flooding back to him, as if some dam that was holding it back had finally broken.

Hearing some chortling, Kris looked up from his desk to see Berdly trying to stifle his laughter as Alphys left the room with their tests and the rest of the class left for lunch.

"Hey, Susie." He whispered to his friend as she started to rise from her desk. "Watch my back, okay? I don't think a fight's going to happen, but be ready just in case."

"What's going on?" She asked him, a confused look on her face.

"Just watch." Kris replied, rising from his desk and walking over to Berdly.

"Something wrong, Kris?" Berdly said smugly as Kris approached him. "Have some trouble on the test, maybe?"

Without replying to the thinly veiled taunt, Kris summoned his stand and sent it's fist flying towards Berdly's face, only stopping mere inches from his beak. Just as he thought, Berdly cringed back from the blow in fear and surprise.

"Just like I thought." Kris said, his suspicions confirmed. "Who pierced you with the arrow, Berdly?"

"Pfft, like I'd tell you that." Berdly scoffed. "What does it matter to you, anyway? You've got much bigger problems on your hands. Like your future in academia, for instance."

Of course he was going to be uncooperative. Kris doubted that he even knew who the man with the arrow was, but figured it was worth a try anyway. "So that WAS your stand ability. I knew something was up when I couldn't think properly."

"You can never think properly, Kris." The avian commented with a smirk. "But I think you'll find any future tests to be similarly difficult. Unless, of course, you give back that book."

At this point, Susie was rising from her seat and moving over towards Berdly. Kris quickly gave her a signal to stop. Hitting him as she probably planned to do wouldn't do any good.

"What book?" Kris asked, trying to play dumb.

"You know the one, Kris. 'How to draw Dragons', the one you've had out from the library for exactly 2590 days now."

"Oh, that one." Kris replied flatly. "Why do you care, exactly?"

"Because, as a part time worker at the library, it is my sacred duty to resolve whatever injustice has allowed you to keep that book out for so long." Berdly puffed out his chest, as if somehow proud of his infernal fixation on that book.

"Give me a break." Kris groaned. "You're really willing to sabotage my test scores for that?"

"All you have to do is return the book and pay the fine." Berdly snarked as he got up from his desk and headed out of the classroom. "There's plenty of time before the next test to think it over, so don't strain your brain thinking too quickly."

With that, Kris was left alone with Susie, who looked very angry.

"We really going to let that little shit get away with talking to you like that?" She growled. "I think we ought to teach him a little lesson after school."

Kris shook his head. "Resorting to physical violence would be like letting him win."

"Isn't it kind of hard to win if your face is the only face getting rearranged?" Susie asked him, looking confused.

"Berdly's set the terms of this little engagement." Kris said with a sigh. "It's a game of subtle sabotage, not the kind of fight we're used to. One thing's for sure though, I'm not giving up that book."

Susie grumbled a little, but seemed to accept the idea. "So what are we gonna do? And why's that book so important to you anyway?"

He had really hoped that she wouldn't ask about that book. The reason he had insisted on keeping it for so long wasn't something he could easily explain to her. "I'll tell you my plan after school. As for the book, I like to draw stuff and I don't want some dumb ass to ruin the only copy of how to draw dragons by spilling coffee on it or something."

That explanation seemed to be enough for her, as she dropped the subject and the two of them headed off to get lunch.

During lunch, they were approached rather nervously by Noelle. An oddity, Kris thought, considering how everyone else gave his and Susie's table a wide berth.

"H-hey...is something going on with you two?" She asked hesitantly. "Officer Undyne was asking me questions on the way to school today."

Susie looked up from her food at the doe, which only seemed to make her even more nervous. "What kind of questions?"

"Uh...s-she asked if you two w-were at the library the day of the incident." She whispered loudly. "I-I was so scared that I honestly forgot the answer, so I just said no."

"That was a good answer, Noelle." Kris assured her. "Stick with that story if anyone else asks you the same thing."

"B-but I still don't know what's going on!" She stammered. "I don't even know what all that business in the library was about!"

"You don't need to." Kris assured her. "And knowing wouldn't make you calm down. In fact, it'd probably make you calm up."

"What kind of dork says 'calm up'?" Susie asked, suddenly turning to look at Kris with a befuddled expression.

With that question, Noelle's inquiry was quickly forgotten as Kris launched into an essay on why "calm up" was a perfectly fine and totally not weird term to use.

By the time they were done arguing about, Noelle had taken her leave. Her story about Undyne questioning her had Kris worried.

He couldn't figure why Undyne would want to know about him and Susie specifically. Surely there were plenty of better potential witnesses.

Then again, nobody would have seen anything, and so would have been fairly useless as witnesses. Kris wondered for a moment if maybe his father was involved in this somehow, but dismissed the notion quickly.

His dad was plenty of things, but a detective was not one of them. No matter how friendly he was with Undyne, Kris couldn't imagine him helping her with the investigation.

Thoughts like these occupied him for the rest of the school day, as he had already figured out his plan for getting back at Berdly. Once the final bell of the day rang, and he and Susie were well away from the school on their walk to his father's house, he decided it was probably safe to reveal his plan.

"All right. I've figured out what we're going to do about Berdly." He told her, hoping she'd be on board with his plan.

"Whatcha got planned, freak?" She asked with an eager smile

"I'm going to sneak into the school tonight." He said. "I'm going to fix my test, and then I'm going to replace Berdly's test with one that has incorrect answers."

Susie stared at him in stunned silence for a few moments before breaking into a mischievous grin.

"I like the way you think, freak! Maybe you're not as much of a mama's boy as I thought. Still, won't the teacher grading it notice that it's not his usual handwriting?"

"I've thought of that already." Kris told her. "Fortunately, Berdly prints his name very neatly on his tests. I think I can copy it pretty convincingly."

"If you're sure you can do it, freak, I'm all in!" Susie replied excitedly. "With our stands, getting into the school should be easy."

Kris felt a measure of relief that Susie was excited about it. Though he wasn't sure why he doubted it in the first place. "Good. Let's meet in front of the school near midnight. That should guarantee that the place is all but deserted."

"Won't your mom get pissed if she realizes you've been out late?" Susie asked.

"I'm staying with my dad this week." Kris replied. "He might send me one text if he notices I'm gone, but one text back with something like 'out with a friend' will assuage any of his fears. He knows I can handle myself."

Susie gave him a nod back. "All right. See you at midnight, freak."

With that, the two of them parted ways for the time being. Kris walking into his father's house for dinner, and Susie heading back to her place to kill time.

If all went well, Berdly would regret that morning's antics, and Kris couldn't imagine what could go wrong with his plan.

<\--To be continued


	16. "Bird is the Word" Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long hiatus finally over. Sorry to those who were enjoying it, but I did need a break to get the drive to write it back. Should have mentioned that I was going on hiatus though. Truthfully, it was a bit unplanned.

Kris glanced anxiously at his watch, and then at his surroundings as he waited in front of the darkened school building.

A week ago, he never would have dreamed about doing something like this. Yet today, he couldn't wait for Susie to arrive so they could begin their little excursion.

As he waited, he pondered the motives behind the man with the arrow's actions. It had seemed odd enough to him when Noelle had gained a stand, but Berdly awakening to one as well completely befuddled him.

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason behind who was pierced with the arrow. The only commonality all of the victims had were that they attended the same school, something which could easily be a coincidence.

Whatever their motives, Kris had no doubt that the person who had the arrow was an enemy. As long as the knight was telling the truth, anyway, which Kris realized he had no reason to believe was true.

Before he could think up any answers to the questions he had asked himself, he noticed Susie walking down the street towards him, occasionally glancing behind her.

"Someone following you?" He asked her when she reached him.

"Nah." She replied, shaking her head. "Least not as far as I can tell. You ready for this, freak?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." He told her. "It should be easy to get inside if we use our stands to open up a window. Only thing I'm not sure about is if there's any kind of night guard."

"I'd be surprised if there was." Susie said with a grin. "This town's so sleepy that they probably never imagined someone wanting to break into the school of all places."

"I hope you're right." Kris replied, as he walked toward the side of the school with Susie following close behind.

Opening one of the side windows with their stands was an easy task. The latches on the windows proved easy to turn and the well kept windows made no noise as they were lifted open.

Kris wordlessly and carefully climbed into the classroom, barely daring to breathe as he set foot in the darkened, deserted school. Susie's passage in was slightly less quiet, her muscular form making the window frame creak as she climbed through it.

"Be quiet!" Kris hissed instinctively.

"Ease up, freak." Susie whispered back. "Who's gonna be in the building at this hour?"

"How do you know there won't be?." Kris grumbled under his breath. "We don't know if there's a night guard or not."

Susie merely rolled her eyes at him as the pair made their way across the room, where Kris slowly and carefully opened the door to the hallway.

For a few moments, they crouched in silence by the open doorway, listening carefully for any sign of a night guard or anything else of the sort.

After minutes of silence from their surroundings, the pair decided it was safe to walk at a normal pace.

Feeling somewhat more calm, Kris lead Susie onward to the second floor, where he remembered the office with the tests to be.

As they ascended the stairs, Kris' heart nearly stopped at the sound of faint voices from below.

"Why didn't we just follow them in through that window?" Came a voice that was definitely Undyne's.

"Because approaching from too close could be dangerous. We don't know if we're dealing with stand users, remember?"

The second voice was one Kris had never heard before, but hearing anyone was enough to send his mind racing with ideas of how he was going to get himself and Susie out of this one.

"Shit, that isn't good." Susie whispered. "You wanna bail?"

"No way." Kris replied. "I'm not letting Berdly get away with that stunt he pulled, no matter what."

He paused for another few moments, hesitating to ask Susie to do what some might consider as pretty extreme considering the situation.

"But I'm going to need Undyne and her new friend distracted. You think you can pull it off?"

"Hell yeah I can!" Susie replied with a grin as she followed Kris up to the top of the stairs. "Only hard part is gonna be trying not to hurt her too bad."

"Don't count her friend out." Kris told her as he started up the flight of stairs to the third floor. "And don't get caught, or we're both in deep shit."

Susie simply gave him a nod as she dashed down a second floor hallway, ensuring that her rapid footsteps made as much noise as possible. As risky as all this was, she was REALLY going to enjoy using her stand to fuck with Undyne a bit.

It wasn't long before she heard the sound of two pairs of rapid footsteps coming up the stairs and toward her. Taking the chance before they got into the hallway, she ducked into a classroom, making sure to slam the door as loudly as possible.

Next, she rushed over to the window and opened it as quietly and quickly as she could. Just as she got it open, she heard a calm, quiet voice speaking something she couldn't make out, followed by Undyne's loud voice through the door behind her.

"I don't CARE if it's a trap! If we keep being careful for too long, this guy is gonna get away!"

The irritation in her voice was very clear, and gave Susie a quiet chuckle. If she had her way, Undyne was going to be fuming by the end of the night.

She hastily used her stand to grab the edge of the window on the floor above her, pulling herself up and opening the window with her stand's other hand at the same time. Looking around the room she had pulled herself into, she saw a half finished soda sitting on the desk that took up a good deal of the room.

With a smirk, she took the soda in Red Buster's fist and poured it straight down, right toward where someone's head would be if they were poking it out the window for a look. She was still banking on the fact that Undyne wasn't a stand user, and so wouldn't be able to see Red Buster above her or notice the soda before it was too late.

To her delight, the action was quickly followed by an angry growl from Undyne, accompanied by the sound of liquid hitting something solid. Through the incoherent, angry yelling and threats from the fish-monster, Susie could make out a calm sounding voice that was clearly confused.

"What kind of enemy is this supposed to be?" She heard them ask out loud. "Hey, Undyne. Get away from the window, will you? This could be some esoteric kind of stand attack."

Those words gave Susie some worry. Whoever that was knew what stands were, and chances were good that they had one of their own.

"Let me go after them." The voice continued. "You make sure nobody gets out the main door, got it?"

"You seriously want me to just stand back and do guard duty after that?" Undyne yelled back. "No way I'm going to just let that one go, punk!"

A loud sigh preceded the other voice's next words. "Look, you don't have a stand. Which means you can't see them. Not to mention that a single good hit from one can take you out. You're no help if you're dead, or if you can't see what you're fighting. Besides, Asgore would never forgive me if something happened to you."

Fuck. The other person was a friend of Kris' dad too. That made this a lot more troublesome. Deciding it was time to make some more noise, she left what she realized was the prinicpal's office, making sure to slam the door roughly behind her.

Now that she had set the bait, she quietly got into one of the classrooms, intending on waiting for Undyne's friend to either pass her by so she could slip away, or come in so she could get the drop on whoever they were.

After a good minute or two of hiding behind where the door would be when it opened, Susie heard footsteps out in the hallway. Not a rapid tread, but a slow, deliberate pace. So deliberate that there was barely any sound from it at all.

After a few tense moments of waiting, the footfalls suddenly stopped. The silence was deafening for only a few brief seconds before she heard a voice.

"I know you're hiding in there." It said, sounding totally calm and collected. "You DO know that being out this late at night and breaking into a school looks awfully suspicious, right?"

Whoever it was sounded amused and jovial, rather than confrontational. In fact, Susie felt herself calming down even as the voice spoke to her, oddly enough.

"My name's Frisk." It continued. "I'm not here to beat you up or anything. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of something. You have a stand, so I'm almost sure you're connected somehow. What I don't think is that we need to fight. I promise you won't be in any trouble if you just come out and talk to me."

For a moment, she considered it. She couldn't believe herself, but she actually considered it. She suddenly realized that the whole time the voice had been speaking, she had been paying less and less attention to everything around her. Vigorously shaking her head to get rid of the trance that had fallen on her, she ran over to the classroom window and quickly got it open, pulling herself up to the roof.

In any other circumstance, she would have fought. But somehow she didn't think that Kris would want his dad's friends to get grievous bodily harm just so he could fix up his test.

The whole situation became more absurd the more she thought about it, so she decided to just focus on staying a fair distance away from Undyne's new friend. She didn't know what their stand could do, and that was a recipe for disaster.

Her main issue was that she had no way of knowing how much longer she had to stall. She couldn't call Kris on his phone, as making any noise at his location was a bad idea at the moment. Instead, she used he stand to assist her in climbing around the building, serving to both hide herself from anyone on the roof, and to look into windows to try and find Kris.

It wasn't long after she had found safety on a fire escape that she heard footsteps coming from the roof. Deciding that she needed to take this out of the school, Susie climbed into the closest window, coming out into a classroom on the third floor. Grabbing a half finished apple from the teacher's desk, she bolted out of the room and down the nearby hallway stairs.

As she started down the stairs to the first floor, she took out her stand and used it's extra strength to throw it directly at Undyne, who was standing guard in front of the main exit doors. She barely supressed a cheer when she hit her target square in the head, the force put into it by her stand sending Undyne to the floor with a loud grunt of pain.

Before the cop could get back up, Susie threw Red Buster at the doors with a loud thud that resounded through the building, knocking the doors off their hinges as her stand's strength proved too much for their old frames.

She was pretty sure Undyne hadn't seen her face before she knocked her to the floor, meaning she was quite likely to get away with this. The thought brought her no shortage of pride and glee, getting one over on Undyne was a rare opportunity. She just hoped that her diversion had given Kris all the time he needed.

Kris, meanwhile, had been trying to ignore the sounds of what he assumed was Susie at her most subtle. The test was easy. He had studied for it for days beforehand. Now that Berdly wasn't around to do...whatever it was his stand did - Kris still wasn't sure on that count - he was doing perfectly fine.

As he was about halfway through the test, he suddenly had a thought. Alphys would probably notice that he had turned in a blank paper before. She had certainly given him an odd look about it when she took his paper.

That was going to be an issue if he simply turned in a fixed test. Instead, he got a much better idea. His stand allowed him extreme precision with delicate motions if he took the time to do use it for that. Adding to that, Berdly had a very neat and precise way of writing his name, one that Kris had taken note of while silently observing him during a particurally boring class.

He put away his new sheet of paper and took Berdly's ungraded test out of storage. He might be failing this test, but so was that bird.

Instead of writing a good test for himself, he copied Berdly's other test answers down, adding minor but crucial mistakes throughout each problem to ensure they'd all earn zero points.

Just as he finished, he heard a loud thud echo from the first floor. The incredibly loud noise prompted him to hastily but carefully put Berdly's new test into the storage, before locking it back up.

Now it was time to make his escape. As easily as he got in through the first floor, he opened the window and used his stand to help him climb down to the firm ground.

Despite Undyne and her new friend not being anywhere in sight, Kris chose not to leave anything to chance and took a long path through the forest in order to get to the street corner where he and Susie usually met.

To his relief, she was there, and it looked like they were both alone.

"Guess it went well, huh?" Kris asked her. Judging by the extremely self satisfied smile on her face, he hadn't actually needed to ask.

"Damn right it did, freak!" She said proudly, puffing out her chest. "Feels good to finally beat Undyne at something."

Kris raised an eyebrow at her, not that she was likely to see it through his bangs. "What do you mean 'finally'? You two butt heads often?"

"She's the reason I can't skip school as often as I'd like." Susie replied with a roll of her eyes. "Even if she doesn't know it was me, it was fun to bean her in the head with that apple."

"Is she okay?" Kris asked, suddenly worried that Susie might have accidentally gone too far. An apple to the head was usually no problem, but a stand could do a lot of damage to a normal person with one.

"Meh." Susie shrugged. "I think she'll be fine. She's got her weird friend to look out for her. Anyway, you get your mission done?"

He gave her a nod in reply. Even if he hadn't been able to fix his own grade, this should make Berdly think twice before trying this same trick again. "Now then. We need an alibi. Wanna watch a movie at my place or something?" By his place he meant Asgore's house, but his father was the only one of his parents that he was sure wouldn't object to him bringing Susie over.

Susie gave him a bemused look. "A movie? At this hour of the night? Somehow I don't think your dad's gonna be okay with that, freak."

"Don't worry about it." He told her. "He lets me do it all the time. His bedroom's pretty soundproofed." Though he wasn't about to admit it to Susie, the alibi idea was just an excuse to invite her over for the night. Despite all they had been through, he still found himself too nervous to ask her to spend time with him without some other excuse. It was a phenomonon he himself couldn't quite understand, as he wouldn't have had this kind of problem asking Ralesi the same question.

"All right, then." Susie said with a shrug. "Just don't blame me if you get in trouble for it."

With that, they were off. Both somewhat tired just from the sheer excitement of the night. A bit of talk about Undyne's mysterious partner took place during the walk, but they didn't know or care enough to talk about it much.

It was a relief to them both when they reached Asgore's place without running into anyone, and slipped quietly inside.

 

 

It was three in the morning when Asgore was finally able to start on the way back home. Undyne and Frisk had called him about a disturbance at the local school, something about a stand user running around there in the dead of night. By the time he got there, however, the only thing out of the ordinary he could see were the conspicuous soda stains on Undyne's uniform. Apparently whoever this mysterious stand user was, the worst they did was fling various food and drink items at police officers.

For his part, he was convinced that the person Frisk and Undyne were looking for was no murderer. After all, they had a perfect opprotunity to do Undyne in. Whoever they really had to be concerned about was probably quite capable of killing in cold blood. All that was, of course, assuming that Father Alvin was indeed dead. All Asgore knew was that the timing of Alvin's dissapearence was no coincidence. Somebody had learned about his stand's ability and decided that it was too dangerous to keep around.

Weary from the late night out, which had included a complete and thurough search of the school, he simply tried to put the case out of his head for now. He would never be able to sleep otherwise.

All the sleep was jolted out of him when he opened the door to his house to hear the loud howl of a chainsaw coming from further inside the house. Breaking into a sprint, he rushed toward Kris' room, suddenly deathly afraid for his son.

His panic was put to rest when he heard a comically distorted voice calling "I'll swallow your soul!" from the TV room, just as he entered to see Kris and, surprisingly. the purple delinquent that Undyne had mentioned.

Asgore's scared expression quickly turned into a smile as he looked at the two of them resting on eachother's shoulders, both sound asleep.

This was the first time in a while he had seen Kris looking so peaceful and satisfied. Normally his son seemed to be in a perpetual neutral state, seeming neither particurally enthused or sad about his life. Asgore made a mental note to thank the dragon monster in the morning, assuming she was still here. Seeing Kris that happy was quite possibly the best thing that could have happened to him that day.

His sorrows now alleviated, he quietly crept to his own bedroom to drift into the most peaceful sleep he'd had in quite a while.

<\-- To be continued


	17. "The Morning After"

"The morning after"

Amazingly, Kris didn't sleep in the next morning. Most likely because he subconsciously still remembered that he had school tomorrow, and that he needed to be there to see the fallout of his antics the night before. 

He nearly jumped off the couch as he opened his eyes. Apparently he had managed to fall asleep while leaning on Susie's shoulder. That or he had got in that position during his slumber. He managed to control himself, however, and slowly got himself off the couch without waking the slumbering monster. 

While part of him was tempted to pretend to be asleep until Susie woke up, just to see how she would react to it, he also didn't want to ruin what they had. He still wasn't quite sure if she actually liked being around him, or was just putting on her best face and tolerating him out of necessity. 

Putting the depressing thoughts out his mind, he carefully went into the kitchen with a quiet yawn. To his surprise, he found his father already making a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, humming happily to himself all the while. 

"Morning, dad." Kris greeted him, kind of surprised to see him so jolly in the morning. "What's the occasion?"

His father turned away from scrambling some eggs to give him a warm smile. "Just making sure there's enough for three. Not often you bring a guest over, after all."

"Doesn't sound like you have a problem with it." Kris commented,taking a seat to wait for breakfast to get done. 

"Kris, you have no idea how happy for you I am." His father told him, with a voice sounding both relieved and regretful. "I always felt bad that I could never help you make friends When you were younger, so seeing you with your new friend warmed my old heart."

Kris let out a humorless chuckle at the statement, finding himself wondering what he thought he was doing with his early teen years beside just going through the motions of school and such.

"Not your fault." He finally managed to say. "I just found myself feeling too out of place to have much interest in trying anymore."

His father didn't seem to be able to find a response to that, instead quickly choosing to change the topic. Kris, for his part, didn't mind in the slightest. 

"So...how'd you meet her?" Asgore asked. "She doesn't look the type that's easy to approach."

That wouldn't have been Kris' first choice of questiosn to answer right after waking up. He didn't want to tell his father about the dark world, but he also didn't have a convincing lie thought up. 

"Well..." he began, quickly deciding to opt for a half truth. "We were both fooling around with our stands in class, and that got us talking about them as soon as we had a moment alone."

He saw his father visibly tense up a little at the word "stand". Apparently he had quite a history with stand related issues, though he had never told Kris the details. 

"Well, I suppose that would explain a lot." Asgore murmured, seemingly able to make himself relax after a few moments. "I'm glad you found someone who has that in common with you, Kris. I know it can be...difficult to empathize with people who don't share your gift."

Kris nodded at him in reply. "Yeah. It feels like you have something that they can never understand, not to mention that it's sometimes difficult to imagine living without one."

"Not to mention that stand users seem to attract trouble..." His father mumbled quietly to himself, losing himself in thought for a while as he finished breakfast.

By that time, Susie was still not awake. Kris figured that either she exerted herself more than he thought last night, or she was catching up on all the sleep she was apparently missing at home.

Kris and his father both decided not to wake her up, and pass their breakfast with idle chatter. There'd be plenty for her once she woke up, of course, but Kris was dissapointed that he'd probably have to leave for school before he could introduce her to his dad.

Sadly, Susie snoozed all the way through the morning meal. Asgore had briefly debated waking her up so she could eat before school, but once Kris explained what he understood of her situation, it was decided that missing school one day in the interest of her health wasn't going to hurt her. 

So it was that Kris found himself walking to school alone that morning, eagerly awaiting Berdly's reaction to his new grade. Despite knowing that his blank sheet would be graded as such, he walked into the classroom with a calm smirk that clearly unnerved Berdly. 

The confused look from the blue monster was satisfying, but not half as satisfying as his reaction when he got handed his paper back. Kris watched with a barely concealed delight as Berdly reacted first with a look of complete shock, and then one of panic. 

As Alphys moved on to give the rest of the class their tests back, Kris could see that Berdly was barely containing some kind of verbal reaction. Whether it was crying, screaming, or a little bit of both, he couldn't tell. 

Kris' silent triumph was interrupted by the sound of his mother's voice calling through the PA system.

"Alphys to the faculty office, please."

The call took their homeroom teacher out of the room, leaving the class to murmer amongst themselves about what kind of trouble she might be in.

For his part, Kris simply sat back and reveled in Berdly's very apparent distress for a while. That is, until Alphys came back with an announcement that would have wiped and smug look right off his face.

"S-so...uh...someone found the window in the faculty office left open, a-and we have some concerns about some tampering with the tests."

A dead quiet passed over the room, and Kris found himself cursing himself internally. How could he have been so stupid as to leave that open on his way out?

"B-because of this..." Alphys continued. "We'll be retaking the test tomorrow. Make the best of this, and think of it as an opportunity to get some extra study time in."

Well, that was kind of fair. Even so, Kris would much rather have Berdly get stuck with a bad grade. 

After that rather disappointing announcement, they returned to their regularly scheduled class. All Kris could think about was how he'd break it to Susie that he fucked up their little escapade the night before. She had almost got caught for that and he had gone and wasted the chance she gave her, although one might not call it a waste since he WAS getting a chance to fix his grade. 

Once class was finished, Kris took the opportunity to confront Berdly while everyone else was clearing out. If nothing else, he needed to make sure that he wasn't going to get messed with during a test again.

"Enjoy a taste of your own medicine, Berdly?" Kris asked, hoping that the shock of almost getting an F had scared the bird into a more agreeable state. 

"I don't know how you pulled that off, Kris." The avaian monster began with a sigh, clearly relieved. "And I don't really want to know, either. How about we both agree that tests and other academically scored activities are off limits then, huh?"

That was surprisingly non combative of him, not that Kris was about to complain. 

"Sure." He replied. "On one condition. Tell me what your stand does, and when you got stabbed by the arrow."

"I can answer one of those." He grumbled. "My 'stand', if that's what you call it, hides itself in an object, like a penicl or something. Anyone who's touching that object will experience an extreme degree of difficulty with critical thinking, problem solving, and generally using whatever walnut sized brain they might posses for anything useful."

Kris nodded at him as he spoke. It wasn't a stand that could really hurt him or Susie, which was what he was really concerned about. Not that he suspected Berdly of being the homicidal type, but you never really knew.

"As for that arrow you mentioned, I honestly don't remember being stabbed by an arrow at any point. You sure you've got all your marbles, Kris?"

Kris simply headed toward the door, no longer interested in talking with Berdly at all. 

"Never mind. Must have been in your sleep or something." He was fairly sure that Berdly hadn't been born with a stand, but it couldn't be helped if he had actually forgot when he obtained his. "No more trying to mess with each other's test, right?" Kris asked, double checking to make sure the bird understood their deal.

"Yeah, deal." The avian grumbled. "You and that book you love so much are more trouble than either of you are worth anyway."

Deeming the snide remark not worthy of a response, Kris simply went to lunch. Sitting alone again felt somehow wrong. He had gotten used to Susie being around so much that what was once his usual arrangement now felt odd. 

His silent enjoyment of lunch was broken by Noelle, who took up a seat across from him out of the blue.

"H-hey there, Kris!" she said nervously, but with a clearly forced smile. "You got a minute, by any chance?"

"Seems like it." He replied, without looking up from his meal.

"W-well..." She began, seeming just as anxious as ever. The two of them hadn't talked much since her mother forbade her from hanging out with him. That was years ago, back when he was still in the business of pulling practical jokes on people. Practical jokes such as hiding under a certain doe's bed to scare the living daylights out of her. 

"I was wondering...you know, about you and Susie. You two are g-good friends, right?"

"The best." He replied flatly, without missing a beat. He was fairly certain Susie would agree with him, if she were there.

"W-well then...uh...what's she like? She seems really hard to talk too, so I never worked up the nerve to really try, but I've wanted to for a while now. Especially after seeing the two of you get along so well."

Kris gave her a tired sigh, thinking about all the ways that her hanging around him and Susie might get her into trouble. 

"Look." He groaned, trying to figure out how to let her down gently. "If you hadn't guessed after that little...incident at the library, she and I are in a little bit of a tricky spot right now. It might be best for you to keep your distance."

Noelle sighed somewhat morosely, clearly disappointed by the answer. "I did kind of figure you guys were into some kind of trouble. I guess I just hoped it wasn't as bad as all that."

Just as she was getting up to leave, Kris stopped her with a question. 

"Wait a minute. Noelle, do you remember being hit with an arrow recently?"

Noelle stopped in her tracks and seemed to think hard about it for a while before finally answering. "W-well, I have a memory of it, but I figured it was a dream or something. I remember sitting in class early in the morning on that day that everyone fell asleep. I looked over to the window to see that it was cracked open a little, and then an arrow came flying through and hit me in the arm!"

Kris nodded, prompting her to keep talking. For some reason, the same person who gave Susie her stand had targeted Noelle too. For what reason that was done, he couldn't fathom. 

"A-and then when I woke up, I didn't see any wound where the arrow should have hit me. Since wounds don't heal that fast, I figured I had just imagined it or something."

"You didn't imagine it." Kris told her, prompting an alarmed look from the doe. "Now that I think about it, maybe it's better if you do hang around me and Susie after all."

"Why do you have to say it like that?" She whined. "Now I'm going to be nervous about it..."

"Just sit back down and let me give you the quick rundown, will you?" Kris replied. It was about time he told her about stands, considering that any stand user might end up a target for the knight. 

With nothing more than a timid nod, Noelle did as he asked, sitting down and allowing him to begin the long and complicated explanation of what being pierced by the arrow had done to her...

 

Meanwhile, an hour so before all this, Susie had finally awoken to the smell of bacon and eggs. The scent made her mouth water almost immediately, and prompted her to hastily get up off the couch and wander into the house's kitchen. 

Even in her groggy haze, she quickly realized that Kris was not, in fact, present. Instead it was only her and a very large monster who she thought she recognized as being Asgore.

"Err...morning..." she mumbled, not sure exactly what to say. She hadn't been able to mentally prepare herself for meeting Kris' dad yet, and had hoped to be able to do it with him there to help her along.

"Good morning!" Asgore called cheerily, setting a plate of freshly made eggs, bacon and pancakes on the table before motioning for her to take a seat.

"Where'd Kris go?" she asked, not hesitating to dig into the plate of provided food. She started wishing she could wake up to something like this every morning, instead of having to walk to school on an empty stomach and wait for lunch. 

"You've slept in till ten thirty, young lady." Asgore said with a jolly chuckle. "Kris had to head to school, but both of us thought that a little extra sleep would do you more good than your morning classes."

"Thanks for that, I guess..." She mumbled, finding herself inexplicably embarrassed at the rather generous hospitality. "It was nice to be able to sleep in for once."

"From the looks of things, you've been getting along with Kris pretty well." Asgore continued. "What do you think of him?"

The question made her pause her eager devouring of her food, trying to find an answer that both made sense to her and wouldn't offend Asgore. She hadn't quite been able to place how Kris made her feel since they had started hanging out together and doing the whole friend thing. It wasn't a bad feeling to be sure, but it was something that was quite hard to describe. 

"He...uh...He's hard to describe." she said honestly, noting Asgore's bemused yet still jovial expression. "I like him, I guess. He's weird in a good way, if you get what I mean."

Her answer was rewarded with an amused burst of laughter from the older monster, one which continued for a good few moments. 

"You know, everything Undyne's told me about you made you sound quite a bit more rude than you actually seem to be." He said, the amused smile never leaving his face. "You seem to be quite a bit more polite than the rumors would make you out to be."

"There's only two kinds of people that I'm polite to." She shot back, feeling more comfortable than she had when their conversation started. "People who could kick my ass and people who feed me. The first kind of person doesn't exist, but you happen to fall under the second category for the moment."

"I think I can see why Kris likes you." The goat-monster murmured with a slight shake of his head. "He never did get along well with people who he felt were easy to push around. I can only guess that he found them boring after a while."

At this point, Susie had finished her breakfast, and was starting to wonder if Kris had managed to get into trouble without her around.

"Guess I'll just try and not be boring, I guess." She shrugged, rising from her seat. "I should probably get going before I miss school entirely. Thanks for the breakfast, old man." 

"The pleasure was all mine." Asgore assured her. "Just do try and take care of yourself, all right? Being around you seems to make Kris quite happy, and I think he'd be devastated if anything happened to you."

Susie cocked her head at the odd statement, before realizing that he was likely referring to her lack of both sleep and food that Kris had probably mentioned to him.

"Don't worry. Kris and I have our little secrets, remember?" She assured him, putting on her best confident smirk. "By the way, thanks for being cool with me hanging out with Kris." She said on her way out the door. "I know I don't exactly have the best reputation."

"Some might say the same about Kris." Asgore replied solemly. "Just don't get him into trouble and we won't have any problems."

Susie simply gave him a nod in reply, signaling that she understood, before leaving the house and starting on her way to the school.

<\-- To be continued.


	18. "Going Slightly Mad"

The conversation with Noelle had gone about as well as Kris suspected it would. Everything about stands had kind of gone over her head, and the fact that she couldn't summon her own at will didn't help much. Still, she seemed to understand that it was serious business, and had accepted Kris' suggestion to come with him and Susie to see Asriel the next day. He could probably explain it better than Kris could, and it would be good to introduce the two of them anyway. Maybe he could help them get some more insight on the motives of the person with the arrow.

His musings were interrupted by a very brief glimpse of Susie as he left the cafeteria. For some odd reason, she seemed to be going upstairs towards the roof rather than to their classroom. 

Feeling somewhat uneasy, he decided to follow her up instead of attending class. If something was wrong, it was more important to deal with that, especially if it was an enemy stand.

He arrived on the roof to see nothing except Susie, who was standing dangerously close to the edge. 

"Susie, you okay?" He asked, suddenly feeling panic welling up inside him. She had seemed happy and content last night, but now he found himself fearing the worst. 

Susie peered down over the edge for a few more long moments before slowly turning back to face Kris, a vacant looking expression on her face. "Just getting some air." She mumbled. "Don't you have a class to get to or something?"

The way she spoke only set Kris even more on edge. It was oddly monotone and disinterested, very unlike the usual tone she had when talking to him. 

"I got worried when I saw you going up here alone." He told her, the concern tangible in his voice. "I thought you might be...uh..." He struggled with what to say next, not wanting to voice the worry that came to his mind when he first saw her on the roof. "Might be dealing with an enemy stand or something."

"Well it's nothing like that." She replied flatly. "I don't need any help right now."

With that statement, she brushed past him and walked slowly back into the school. The exchange left Kris feeling confused, worried, and helpless. If Susie was going through some kind of emotional or metal problem, he didn't feel like he was in much of a position to help her. On the other hand, if it was some kind of stand related problem, he didn't even know where to begin looking for a cause, solution, or enemy stand user. 

He was left to stew in these despair inducing feelings through the next class period, during which Susie simply stared out of the window that she sat next to. Never even giving him a glance.

For the first time since he had started hanging out with Susie, he felt truly alone again. The way she had spoken to him on the roof had gotten to him, making him consider that she had simply decided she didn't like him anymore. 

His mind raced with similar thoughts through the whole class, preventing him from paying any attention to the no doubt enthralling subject Alphys was lecturing about, Thoughts of how he may have dissapointed, offended, or failed Susie flew through his mind like so many birds flying south for the winter. 

Through the haze of demoralizing thoughts, one crystal clear, sobering thought cut through. It was a memory of when Asriel told him that the first thing he should ask himself when something odd was going should be: "Is this the work of an enemy stand?" At that moment, he decided the answer must be yes. It wouldn't be fair to Susie to believe that she'd just suddenly start acting like this for no reason. He simply had to assume that this was the effect of a stand ability. 

Of course, this decision didn't help him solve the problem, but it did put him at ease in an odd way. Beating the tar out of an enemy stand user was in some ways less daunting than trying to play therapist. 

Mercifully, after what felt like forever, the bell finally rung. The sound came as a relief to Kris, who was all too eager to start trying to get the bottom of Susie's sudden, odd behavior. 

Despite the fact that she seemed to be pretending he wasn't there, Susie didn't seem to mind it when Kris walked with her out of school. 

"Heading home already?" Kris asked her, desperately hoping for some kind of response. Instead, he only got the same silence she had been displaying since their brief chat on the roof, staring forward with a glassy looking stare the whole time. 

Not knowing what else to do, Kris simply followed her in the hopes of getting some kind of useful information once she reached her destination. 

The two of them walked in silence for for so long that the sun began to set, casting it's final rays above the rooftops of the town. The whole thing made Kris even more confused and on edge as time continued to pass. Yet, with no other leads on what was going on, and wanting to keep an eye on his friend, he continued to follow her. 

As they passed by Asriel's place, the area around it devoid of pedestrians, Susie suddenly stepped out into the middle of the street. To Kris' horror, she made no sign of moving as a car bore down on her. The large vehicle seeming like it wasn't going to be able to swerve out of the way in time. 

Acting quickly, he threw out his stand and shoved Susie to the other side of the road. He breathed a sigh of relief as the car continued down the road with a honk, but without having hit Susie.

As Kris finished crossing the road to make sure Susie was all right, he heard a loud, malevolent chuckling from an alleyway behind him. 

"You REALLY shouldn't have done that, boy." Came a hoarse, croaking voice. "You would have been better off letting her die. Now I get to kill both of you in one go!"

The voice's owner stepped out of the shadowy alley, revealing himself to be a rotund clown looking figure complete with face paint and a mask bearing a permanent, maniacal smile.

"You guys really need to stop showing yourself to brag about your stands." Kris replied. "You're going to regret showing yourself to stroke your own ego."

"Come now, boy. This is hardly for the sake of my own ego." The clown said, with a surprising lack of humor. "I've been targeting you with my stand for quite a while now, and it seems like it hasn't had any effect. I want to know why."

"You're the ace of hearts, right?" Kris asked, not knowing the answer to the clown's question. 

"I am indeed!" The clown exclaimed happily, punctuating it with a dramatic bow. "So, I take it the queen told you about me and my stand, then."

Kris simply nodded, turning briefly to look at Susie, who had risen from the sidewalk and was now staring at him with a blank expression. She seemed okay, for now at least.

"She told us about your stand." Kris stated, turning his attention back to the clown. "But it looks more like it hypnotizes people rather than creates a new personality."

"Is that how she explained it?" The clown hummed disappointedly. "Well, it doesn't quite work like that. Allow me to explain."

Kris rolled his eyes, but allowed the ace of hearts to keep talking. As annoying as it was to hear people blab about their stands, he did need to know how it worked.

"Everyone's had that dark little thought at least once in their lives. That passing thought that maybe, just maybe the world would be better off without them." 

Kris already didn't like where this was going, and the clown's jovial tone wasn't helping matters.

"My point is that everyone has a little bit of suicidal ideation down there. Whether it's buried deep down or right there on the surface, just waiting for a little nudge to bring it to the front of the mind. My stand, 'Going Slightly Mad' latches onto that little seed of self hatred and slowly but surely makes it grow, until it can use that emotion to posses the target."

Kris turned back to check on Susie again. Sure enough, she was still staring at him with the same glazed over expression that she'd had since noon."And you're possessing Susie right now, I take it?" 

"Well...not possessing, exactly." The clown admitted. "See, my stand can indeed take control of a person, but it's autonomous when it does so, looking only for ways to get the host killed. The only time it strays from that goal is when someone attempts to stop it. At that point, it tries to eliminate whoever's helping keep it's host alive. In this case, that person is you."

That did not sound good. Kris didn't know how he'd handle a scenario where he was forced to fight Susie. Keeping both of them alive was going to be a real challenge. 

"So why am I not being attacked right now? Your stand seems awfully passive."

The clown cackled at Kris' question, taking a couple steps back into the alley. "It won't start fighting until I'm done talking with you. Which I soon will be, seeing as I still can't figure out why my stand couldn't control you. Your friend more than made up for that little setback though. She was so very, very easy to control. Evidently, she's heard the call of the void and thought about answering more often than most."

At this, Kris lost his temper. Not that anyone would have been able to tell by looking at his face, which still had the same stoic expression he usually wore. 

Kris brought out his stand and began to charge across the street, intent on introducing his fists to the clown's face. However, his eager charge was quickly brought to an end when a powerful hand grabbed him by the shoulder and flung him down to the pavement. 

It took only a few moments for him to recover from the harsh landing on the concrete. One of the dubious benefits of being a stand user was that you could handle a lot more blunt force trauma than most, and it had probably saved him from a concussion here. 

He still barely recovered in time to roll out of the way of Susie's foot as it came stomping down where his head had been resting. Kris shuddered to think what that might have done to his face if he had been too slow, the idea driving home the fact that fighting Susie was not something he wanted to use his time doing.

Kris quickly sprung to his feet as he took a brief glance at the alley where the clown had been standing, revealing that he was gone, leaving Kris to deal with his possessed friend alone. 

It wasn't long after he had gotten to his feet that Susie was on the attack again, coming at him with both fists trying to make contact with his face. 

Despite the fact that the clown's stand didn't seem to be able to puppet Susie's own stand, Kris found himself unable to bring himself to attack back. Sure, he could easily incapacitate her with his stand, but he felt sure there must be some way to do this without hurting her. Besides, he knew that 'Going Slightly Mad' wanted Susie to get herself killed, and would likely try and make him kill her by mistake.

It was with the sudden twang of a string that his answer revealed itself, as a dart came flying down from a second floor window of Asriel's house on a direct course for Susie's neck. 

Susie reacted quickly, breaking from her vicious assault on Kris to move out of the way of the dart, letting it hit the pavement harmlessly. 

Seeing his chance, Kris rewound time. The events passed in reverse and slow motion, allowing him to see Asriel standing at that window with a small mechanical crossbow in his hand. 

Once the rewind ended, Kris lunged forward with his stand and grabbed Susie in a tight bear hug. The hold probably wouldn't normally have kept her there long, but it stopped her long enough for the dart to make contact with the back of her neck. 

As Kris had guessed, the dart must have contained some kind of tranquilizer, as Susie's eyes soon drifted closed, her body going limp in Kris' arms.

"Bring her inside, will you?" Came Asriel's voice from the open window. "And hurry up before some passerby gets the wrong idea."

With no small effort, and mostly thanks to the enhanced strength his stand granted him, he managed to get Susie into Asriel's house, gently placing her on one of the dining room chairs.

"Az, not that I'm complaining, but why do you have tranquilizer darts lying around?" Kris asked his friend as he came downstairs wearing a casual looking hoodie and jeans, the miniature crossbow strapped to a belt on his waist.

"Look, Kris, I'm a standless guy that likes to hang around stand users." Asriel replied with a smug looking grin. "Those people attract trouble like Internet chat rooms attract horny guys, and I don't want to be totally useless when that comes around."

"How long were you sitting on THAT analogy?" Kris asked with a groan.

"Longer than I'll admit." Asriel chuckled at him. "Now then, what are we dealing with here?"

Kris took the time while they were tying Susie to the chair to explain the Ace of Hearts' stand to Asriel, omitting the rather personal details about Susie, of course. The more he said, the more Asriel's cocky look dropped off his face, replaced by a worried look. 

"Unlimited range, huh?" The furry monster mumbled, shaking his head. "Those things are the worst to try and fight, as far as I understand it. Your best bet is to try and figure out where the stand user is now. Getting rid of him seems to be the only way we have of freeing Susie."

As great of an idea as Kris thought that was, it had one little problem with it. He had no clue where the clown was going. "That's going to be a little difficult, seeing as he didn't see fit to tell me where he was running off to."

Asriel shrugged. "Take a wild guess, then. He just revealed himself to you, and his stand apparently has infinite range. The best thing for him to do would be to get out of town as soon as possible."

Kris mulled the idea over for a few moments, tossing the possibilities around in his head. "We don't have a local airport, and barring a car, that means the quickest way would be the train station."

Asriel quickly took out his phone and looked something up. "Next train arrives in...20 minutes. If you run to the train station, and I do mean RUN, you should be able to catch him."

"In a public place like a train station?" Kris asked incredulously. "Isn't that a bit of a problem?"

"In a town like this, nobody's using the train this late in the evening." Asriel answered as he finished getting Susie securely restrained to the chair. "You had REALLY better hurry, Kris. We can't keep her like this forever."

Kris merely gave his friend a nod before sprinting out the door and towards the train station, not wanting to waste any more time on idle chatter. Asriel was right, if he fucked this up, there was going to be no second chance to save Susie. 

His desire to save her became the fuel that propelled him on his mad sprint to the train station, ignoring the fire in his lungs and joints as he pushed his body to the limit. 

He only stopped once he reached the station. The dark platform was illuminated only by a couple lights, revealing one lone figure sitting on a bench. 

Mere moments after he had caught his breath in preparation to confront who he assumed to be the ace of hearts, his phone rang. A quick look at the number revealed it to be Asriel, prompting Kris to quickly answer the call.

"Hey, I figured you'd have made it by now." Asriel's voice was comforting to hear, making Kris feel like he was less alone at the platform than he really was. 

"Don't waste time talking to me now." Asriel continued. Just put me on speaker and leave the call going. I want to be here if you need help or...moral support or something. I won't distract you any more than I already have."

Kris gave his friend a quick "Gotcha." in reply, before putting the speaker on and pocketing his phone again. 

Striding confidently up onto the station platform, Kris was glad to see that the figure on the bench was indeed the ace of hearts. The wretched looking clown scrambled up from his seat as he noticed Kris approaching, and darted with surprising speed to the doors of the station building. 

"Bleh! You guessed where I was headed, did you, brat?" He growled at Kris. "Well, just try and get me inside the station! There might only be one or two staff members on duty this late in the evening, but they won't hesitate to come and help a poor, defenseless clown if some little punk tries to beat him up!"

The clown's words prompted Kris to break into his own sprint toward the doors, though he could already tell that he wasn't going to beat the clown inside. That was going to be an issue. He couldn't just beat the shit out of someone in public, especially since the staff inside wouldn't know about stands. 

Suddenly, Asriel's voice came over his phone. "Kris. Rewind the clown."

"Rewinding won't help, Az!" Kris shouted back. "If I rewind time I rewind my own position too. I won't get any distance out of that!"

"I didn't say rewind time. I said rewind the fucking clown, Kris." The monster's voice was surprisingly calm, given the situation. "You can rewind a single object or person at a time, Kris. You just have to focus."

"How do you know I can do that?" Kris yelled again, still running towards the doors. 

"Because if you can't, then we might not be able to save Susie, and I'm not ready to give up on her yet. Are you?"

That final question convinced Kris to try it. With a deep breath, even during his desperate sprint, he concentrated as hard as he could on the clown, who had just about reached the doors of the lighted building. 

Gritting his teeth and praying to the Angel, he activated his stand's ability. Much to his surprise, instead of everything rewinding in slow motion as would usually happen, Kris watched as the clown seemingly moonwalked...or moon-ran, backwards. 

By the time the localized rewind was over, the clown was in the same spot he was five seconds before Kris started rewinding him. This put him right in grabbing range of Kris's stand, and put a smile on the human's face.

A look of pure shock and disbelief came over the ace of hearts as Kris took hold of him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him backwards, tossing him away from the station building.

"Now then. I think I said something about making you regret bragging about your stand." Kris stated, bringing his stand's sword up against the clown's throat.

"W-wait, please!" The darkener squeaked, a look of fear in his eyes despite the smile that the mask fixed upon his face. "Please spare me! Spare me and I swear I won't bother you or your friends again! I-I'll even leave town, or leave the country!"

Kris simply shook his head at his cowering foe, putting away the sword and brandishing his stand's fists. Something quick was too good for someone like this.

"I need to send a message to your boss." The human stated solemnly. "The message that if he keeps sending people, they're going to keep dying. And besides, you tried to take Susie's life. Not only that, you tried to take it in the most cowardly way I can imagine, a way that would leave everyone thinking it was a suicide. For that, you owe me something you can't pay back with money."

With those final words, he tossed the clown up into the air and began driving his stand's spectral fists into him over and over again. The punches he threw were flung at such a speed that it almost seemed as if he stand was punching with more than two fists at a time. 

He was almost sure that the anger burning in his soul toward the loathsome clown was making him hit harder. He could feel his foe's body break just a little bit more with every hit he delivered, every punch only making him want to hit faster and harder, until the clown finally turned to dust midair.

After he caught his breath, recovering from the brief blind rage he had found himself in, he took a quick look around the platform. Not seeing any prying eyes, he decided to make a quick getaway before anyone found him standing over a pile of monster dust. 

"I got him, Az." He spoke into his phone as he began a slow walk back to Asriel's place. "Susie should be fine now."

"Yeah, I heard." Asriel replied, his voice clearly full of pride. "Good going, Kris. I'll make sure Susie's awake when you get back."

Asriel was true to his word, as the first thing Kris saw when he opened the door to Asriel's house was Susie and the tall boss monster having what seemed to be a serious discussion over a cup of tea. 

The relief and joy Kris felt on seeing Susie looking normal again was too much for him, and he was unable to restrain himself from running up to her and embracing her.

"Uhh, Kris...you okay there, freak?" Susie asked, confused by the gesture but not making any moves to stop him. "Your weird friend was just telling me about some clown or something."

Kris couldn't muster an answer for a while. He could only think of what the ace of hearts had said about Susie, how she 'heard the call of the void...and thought about answering.' He decided it best not to talk about that directly, for the moment anyway. She probably wouldn't like the fact that he knew about those thoughts.

"Susie..." He finally muttered, tearing up a little. "I'd miss you if you were gone, you know?"

It wouldn't exactly make sense to her at the moment, but he needed to tell her how he felt. 

"O...kay then, freak." She managed to say, sounding incredibly befuddled. "Not that I don't...uh...appreciate the sentiment, but what made you think I was planning on leaving? The last thing I remember was leaving your dad's house this morning."

Kris took a deep breath before managing to release her from the tight hug, looking up at her face to see a faint blush on it.

"Oh boy." He sighed, regaining his own composure. "We've got a lot to tell you."

And tell it he did. The whole story of her brief time spent possessed by 'Going Slightly Mad.' She seemed quite disturbed by the whole story, even though Kris left out the part where the clown told him some personal things about her. In the end though, she appeared relieved and grateful that Kris had managed to free her from the clown's control.

"Geez, that's two I owe you now, freak." She sighed at the end of the story, leaning back in the chair and stretching her arms with a yawn. "Better not let those rack up too much, huh?"

"I'm not keeping score." Kris assured her. "I definitely wouldn't be alive without you, and vice versa. We keep each other safe, that's what a team does."

"Yeah, I guess." She grumbled. "Still, it'd be nice to save your life for once. I'm no damsel in distress or anything gay like that."

"I'm sure you'll get your chance." Kris told her with an almost imperceptible grin. "I doubt the Knight's done with us yet."

Susie took on a grin of her own at that comment, though hers was an eager, ear to ear smile. "Maybe not, but we'll make him wish he had never started by the time he's finished."

"Amen to that." Kris murmured, finding it somewhat difficult to be too enthused by the prospect of more fighting. "For now, you want to try and finish that movie we slept through the other night?"

"Hell yeah!" Susie cheered, leaping up from her chair. "We'd better hurry up and get to your dad's then, before we have to deal with ANOTHER stand user, huh?"

Kris nodded in reply, rising from his own seat and thanking Asriel for his help before bidding his furry friend farewell. As he walked off to his father's house with Susie, he made a resolution to make the most of what scant time he was given to spend with Susie between the increasingly dangerous conflicts they were being forced into. If this incident had done anything for him, it had made him realize exactly how much he now felt like he needed her, and that the feeling might be mutual to some extent. 

It was with pleasant thoughts like these that he eventually ended up drifting off to sleep on the couch with Susie later that night. The two of them simply unable to keep their eyes open after the night's events. Yet, Kris' dreams would end up being far less agreeable than the thoughts he went to sleep with...

<\-- To be continued.


	19. Memories of that Blood, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another short dream chapter.

The sense of dread he had felt in the last dream was there again. Not as potent, but still there, like something was very wrong.

Kris was standing on the edge of a pier, looking out at the moon as it's light reflected on the dark ocean below. Like in the last dream, he was not in control of his own body.

This time, the sense of looming dread came from the water. He felt as if something was watching him, or at the very least lurking, beneath those unnaturally calm waters.

"They're late." He said, though certainly not by choice. 

"Fear not, they will arrive when they please, but they WILL arrive." Said a deep, distorted sounding voice to his left. It seemed to Kris as if his voice was coming from everywhere at once, and yet somehow it didn't seem especially loud. His head turned to the left on what felt like instinct, as if he could feel where the other presence was, allowing him to see a tall, dark figure wearing a hood and cloak.

"This had better be worth all the waiting." Kris heard himself murmur, clearly irritated. 

"It is good that you know them, and that they know you." The hooded figure replied calmly. "I promise, you will not be disappointed."

Kris didn't reply, instead he went back to staring out over the ocean, as if anticipating seeing something in the water.

"Where does your brother think you are?" The voice spoke again, never changing it's inflection or tone.

"I told him I'm on a genealogical expedition." Was the reply that came from Kris' lips, though he didn't know what brother the dark figure was talking about. "He believed it, of course. It's only natural I'd want to know who my birth parents are."

The hooded man laughed now. A deep, unnerving laugh that seemed to echo even in the open space.

"A truth mixed with your lie. You really do take after me, don't you?" 

"I could have told him anything." Kris replied with a sigh. "He never questions me, and never has. He practically worships the ground I walk on. It's just a shame he's useless to me."

"Indeed, a shame..." The figure mumbled, his voice trailing off. 

Suddenly, Kris found his eyes drawn to a disturbance in the water, dread mounting in his heart as he saw a large fin emerge from below the ocean's surface. He felt his heartbeat speed up as whatever was swimming towards him drew nearer. Somehow, deep down, he knew that it must surely be an aberration, a thing that belonged only in the realm of nightmares instead of walking on the fair, green earth.

"Ah. They come." The hooded man stated with a pleased voice.

Mercifully, before whatever was swimming towards the pier surfaced, Kris found himself waking up in a cold sweat again. He quickly slowed his rapid, panicked breathing so as to not wake Susie, who was snoring on the couch beside him. 

A quick glance out the window showed him that it was still dark out, so he reclined again on the couch and tried to fall back asleep. Apparently the odd dream with the mountains wasn't fated to be the last after all, and neither was the one he had just had. 

Kris wondered for a moment if these dreams were some effect of an enemy stand, yet he found that unlikely. They were't really hurting him, per say. Sure it was scary to have a very vivid feeling of being trapped in his own body, but it ended as soon as the dream did. 

Still, he debated bringing them up with Susie or Asriel at some point. He certainly couldn't discount the possibility that they were stand related. 

After an irrepressible yawn reminded him that he still needed to sleep, he closed his eyes and let himself fall back into the gentle embrace of slumber. If he remembered, he'd try and find out more about the dreams tomorrow.

<\-- To be Continued.


	20. The Fun Gang

The Knight was not pleased. All his subordinates could tell, which is why he was alone as he paced back and forth in his war room. Getting rid of a couple of teenagers shouldn't have been difficult, and yet here he was, having lost some of his best to them. 

"Well well, look who's a full suit down." Came the smug, taunting voice of the Knight's personal tormentor: "He who longed for Heaven."

The Knight wasn't sure how or when he got in, but he decided not to question it. 

"Do you have anything better to do than taunt me, knave?" He asked, irritated at the unwelcome intrusion. 

The man with the arrow shrugged, taking a seat in one of the many comfortable chairs usually reserved for the Knight's trusted servants. 

"I'm just checking in with my good pal. And besides, I figured you might be more open to giving in now that you've lost a few people. Fork over your research now and you can just...forget about this little deal of ours."

"And give up the chance to get my hands on the arrow?" The Knight asked incredulously. "Never. The very fact that you believe I would consider it is insulting."

The bold statement was answered only by a shrug as "He who longed for Heaven" stood from his seat and moved to leave.

"Fine, but if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

With that, the Knight was left alone to stew in his own anger once more. There was little he could do now but hope that the clubs would have more luck than the hearts had. If they failed him as well, he would seriously have to consider the jester...

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Susie awoke late in the morning, something which she was never able to do back at her house. Groaning as she stirred from the couch, she noticed that she had awoken before Kris this time. 

She gently moved Kris' head off of her shoulder to rest against the couch cushions as she rose from her comfortable position on the sofa. After standing up, she carefully tip toed into the kitchen, finding to her disappointment that it was empty. 

Sleepily stumbling over to the fridge, she saw a note on it, penned obviously in haste. 

"Kris, I had to go early this morning. A couple friends of mine need my help with something. You and Susie can treat yourselves to whatever you like."

Just as Susie finished reading the note, she heard Kris groaning softly from the TV room. She leaned against the fridge and gave him a smile as he groggily made his way to join her in the kitchen, reflecting briefly on how it felt kind of nice to be able to crack a real smile this easily.

"Morning, freak." She said, in a more obviously teasing tone than usual. "How was your beauty sleep?"

Kris gave her another sleepy groan as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Thank the angel it's a weekend. I couldn't have handled waking up at the usual time today."

"Same here." Susie replied with a nod. "Even though I don't remember half of yesterday I still felt pretty tired last night."

"How you feeling now?" Kris asked, sounding more concerned than usual. 

"I'm fine, freak." She assured him with a smile. "A little sleep fixed me right up." 

"Good to hear." Kris replied with a nod. "So...uh...what do you want for breakfast?"

"Uh...what do people normally eat for breakfast?" She asked him. Her question was spoken at a lower volume than her usual tone, as she suddenly became acutely aware that she didn't really know what kind of food people normally had in the morning.

Kris stood silent for a few moments, leaving Susie feeling rather awkward. 

"Wanna let me surprise you?" He finally asked, a slight smirk coming across his face.

She half suspected that this was going to be a prank, but at the same time she was feeling pretty hungry. While she could just help herself to something in the fridge or pantry like Asgore's note had suggested, she would feel more comfortable if it Kris was the one in charge of using up his dad's food.

"Sure, freak." She sighed. "But it better be good, because your face is starting to look like a sandwich."

"Don't worry." Kris chuckled. "You'll love it. Unless you're an alien or something, I guess."

With that, he began quickly but gracefully taking various things out of the fridge and pantry. Among them, Susie saw a carton of eggs, a bag of shredded cheese, a container of ground meat, and various jars from the pantry filled with powders and herbs she couldn't recognize.

"Wait, are you telling me you can cook?" She asked him, surprised that he wasn't just grabbing whatever was most conveniently edible at the moment.

Kris turned back to look at her briefly, his smirk considerably widened. "With two parents who love to do it, I could hardly avoid learning how." As he spoke, he had his stand put four pieces of bread into the toaster before procuring butter and a knife to spread it with. 

"I'll have you a snack in a little bit." Kris continued. "The main course will take a little while to make."

Susie watched in awe as Kris hastily went to work with the ingredients, cracking the eggs into a bowl and whisking them up with his stand's unnatural speed before pouring the result into a hot pan. 

She was so enthralled that she almost didn't catch the plate of buttered toast that Kris tossed away, expertly throwing the plate as if it was a frisbee. 

"You're real fucking lucky I caught that, freak!" She called over to him as she took a seat, not wanting to waste any more time before eating. "Bet your dad would have been real pissed at you breaking his nice looking plates."

"I knew you'd catch it." Kris replied flatly, not stopping his quick and graceful pace of cooking. "You're reliable that way."

Without another word, Susie dug into the toast, appreciating both the kind words and the appetizer. It was only after she bit into the first piece that she noticed the sprinkling of cinnamon sugar Kris had managed to sneak into the toast, adding a pleasantly sugary taste to the otherwise ordinary appetizer.

Susie decided not to distract Kris with small talk while he cooked, which was a spectacle in of itself. Between him and his stand, she could barely keep track of what he was doing. Of course, her own inexperience with cooking hardly helped in that regard. 

By the time Kris was finished cooking, Susie had finished three plates of toast and her mouth was still watering. The smell of whatever concoction Kris was cooking made her want to grab the pan off the stove and bite in before it was even done. 

Among the various scents permeating the room were the smell of bacon, ground beef, melted cheese, and just a hint of onion. Smells Susie only knew from having hung around outside restaurants and from when Kris' dad was cooking the day before.

Her jaw almost dropped when Kris turned around, unveiling his creation. It was a huge omelet, taking up the entirety of the large pan and filled with bacon, beef, and melted cheese. 

"J-jeez, freak!" She managed to stammer out, her eyes going wide at the sight of the huge thing. "Is this how big you normally make these these?"

"Only when there's a very hungry dragon in my kitchen." He replied, using an almost comically over-sized spatula to flip the mass of egg and meat onto an equally large plate that his stand retrieved for him. "Bon appetite." He told her with a smile.

"Is bone apple tea the name of this dish or something?" She asked as she dug into the large omelet. The taste was better than anything she'd ever had before. Somehow, having two different kinds of meat at once didn't feel redundant. Of course, the wonderful taste didn't make her feel like eating it any slower so she could mull over the composition, and she soon began digging in even quicker than before.

"It's whatever you want to call it." Kris responded as he started cooking himself up a considerably smaller omelet. "So long as you don't call it bad."

"Wouldn't dream of it, freak. This is great!" She assured him, suddenly realizing that she couldn't really remember the last time someone had put as much work as that into something on her behalf. 

It must have been clear that she stopped to compliment the sentiment behind it, as she suddenly noticed that Kris was giving her a slightly concerned look. 

"You sure you're feeling okay, Susie?" The human asked in a worried tone. "You look kind of sad all of a sudden."

With a quick shake of her head, she cleared whatever melancholic look had spread across her features. "It's nothing. Must be the faint onion smell or something."

Kris was silent for another few moments before mumbling out a very faint, almost nervous sounding statement. "You know...if you're ever having a problem or anything, you can tell me." 

The words seemed to come out of the blue, though they felt very sincere and full of concern. So much so that she couldn't muster a reply of her own for a little while.

"I could say the same, Kris." she managed to say, deciding that now was not the time for that teasing nickname she had become so fond of using. "We're...friends, after all." She added, finally able to bring herself to use the term without worrying that he didn't feel the same way.

After her reply, Kris let out a tired sounding sigh. "Susie, I have something to tell you about what happened last night."

His tone sounded almost guilty, a sentiment that piqued Susie's curiosity. 

"You saved my life last night, Kris. Whatever else happened, I don't think I have any right to be pissed."

"All right." He said with a slow exhale. "Guess I better tell you. The enemy stand from last night...it, uh...how the fuck do I say this? It...fed off of people's buried suicidal thoughts in order to take control of them"

Susie could see where this was going, but let Kris continue anyway.

"The user told me that you had had those thoughts more than most people he had targeted, and that's why he was able to take control so quickly. I didn't tell you last night because I wasn't sure how I'd even begin to help someone through something like that, and-"

It was here that she cut him off before he started beating himself up over anything. 

"Kris, I appreciate the sentiment, I really do. I get why you wouldn't want to talk about it. Quite frankly, I wouldn't either. I do appreciate you bringing it up though." She said with a sigh, mentally preparing herself to spill her metaphorical guts to the human she had cam to regard as her best and only friend.

"It's true that I've thought about that kind of thing before." She placed her head in her hands as she continued, bringing to the surface of her mind thoughts and memories that she tried to keep buried. 

"My mom...She's busy most of the time, to say the least. And when she isn't busy, she's drinking. I don't even know who my dad is, and I figure he's probably part of the reason why my mom is the way she is." It felt painful to vent to her only friend, but the kind of pain that comes with ripping off a bandaid. "So it's always a tossup whether she'll be willing to hold a conversation or berate me for being such a burden. She does tend to the latter though, so I kind of got it in my head that I was nothing but a burden on her. A waste of space that would never have a purpose in life..."

Here she trailed off, those old insecurities almost getting the better of her and making her tear up.

"Susie, I-" Kris started to say, likely about to say something to comfort her. Before he could get it out, however, Susie rallied herself. 

"I'm fine now, Kris." She assured him with a forced but not entirely insincere smile. "Meeting you, being forced to fight the Knight and his goons...it gave me a purpose."

Kris seemed to visibly relax upon hearing those words, a sigh of relief escaping his lips. 

"So yeah, I've thought about it in the past, and I guess those feelings are still bouncing around in there. But I know I'd never even think about acting on them anymore. After all, I can't kick the Knight's sorry ass in if I'm dead, right?"

Kris gave her a chuckle and a nod in return, clearly more comfortable now than he had been moments ago. "I kind of feel the same way." He admitted. "Nothing to the degree you had, of course, but I was feeling like there wasn't much of a point to living. I went through the motions of school, sure, and I did it well, but I was never able to find a future goal I felt was worth pursing. The world just...wasn't something I had much interest for in general."

"Funny how we've kind of given each other reasons to keep going, huh, freak?" She remarked with a wry chuckle. It really did feel like an odd destiny had drawn them together and given them both a purpose, however dire it might have been. 

"I guess we have." Kris stated with a smile of his own. "Anyway, I'm sorry for ruining your breakfast with...this kind of talk. I just needed to know if there was anything I could do to help."

"Nah, it's cool." Susie replied, her facial features now relaxing as she started to bite into her breakfast again. "Kinda nice to get it off my chest, if you catch my drift."

After that, the topic was dropped, and they moved on to more pleasant, idle chatter. Just as they finished breakfast, Kris filled her in on today's plan. Apparently he wanted to teach Noelle how to user her stand. For that reason, he planned to bring her to Asriel's place for the same kind of talk that Susie had gotten after their visit to the dark world.

Personally, Susie didn't see the point in using their time on the doe. She was way too timid to be useful in a fight even in the unlikely case that she actually could control her stand.

Still, she kept this to herself. She didn't have any better plans for the day, after all.

As she and Kris were getting up and preparing to leave, they were both startled by a knocking at the door. Kris was the first to reach it, opening the door to reveal Noelle and Ralesi standing on the other side.

"Hey Ral, hey Noelle." Kris greeted them both, sounding slightly confused by their presence. "I guess I should have figured you two would get along well."

"You didn't tell me you had a little brother, Kris!" Noelle said excitedly. "He's adorable, and really sweet to boot."

"Forgive me for not remembering to introduce the two of you, then." Kris said with a sigh. "So, I'm guessing you're eager to go visit Asriel, huh?"

"A-actually...we already have." Ralesi stammered out. "Noelle didn't want to bother you early in the morning, and she said she could manage the visit without you if she wasn't alone, so I went with her!"

"So how'd it go?" Kris asked the two of them.

"W-well..uh..." Noelle started, seeming a little unsure of what to say. All the while, Susie noticed that the doe kept stealing brief glances at her, glances which she quickly broke when she thought Susie was returning them.

"He just...kind of told me to have a good day and that he'd talk to me later. Didn't say when, just 'later.'" Your friend's really weird, Kris. 

Susie scoffed in response. Evidently Asriel had come to the same conclusion she had, that Noelle was too much of a scaredy cat to be of any help to them. 

"All right." Kris said with a shrug. "Guess that's taken care of, then. Now we gotta figure out what to use the rest of the Saturday for."

"Well, about that..." Ralesi began. "Noelle and I got to thinking, if the four of us are going to be a team, we ought to have a cool secret base or something. You know, like the batcave!"

Susie raised an eyebrow at the small darkener. She hadn't realized the little guy was such a nerd. 

"Noelle did you already show him your comic books?" Kris asked the doe with a wry smirk. 

"Don't pretend like you didn't enjoy them too, Kris." Noelle huffed. "You called them silly, but I remember catching glimpses of you reading the ones I loaned you when you thought nobody was looking."

"Don't ruin my street cred in front of the dragon, Noelle." Kris shot back flatly. "So, Ralesi, you were saying?" 

"Well, Noelle told me that she lives in this really huge house, on account of her mom being the mayor and all, and that most of time, she's the only one home. I was thinking we could all hang out there!"

Susie had known that Noelle's parents were rich, but somehow she figured that at least one of them would be in that big mansion of theirs regularly.

"What? You mean her parents are always busy at work or something?" Susie asked. 

"Her dad's in the hospital and her mom's busy most of the day." Kris answered the question for Noelle, who had jumped a little when Susie started speaking.

"Y-yeah, what Kris said..." Noelle murmured.

Geez, Susie wondered. Did ANY of the stand users in this town have a stable family? It certainly seemed like lack of parental attention was a major common factor.

"Well, it'll work as a place to hang out for sure." Kris continued. "Noelle's got enough video games and movies to keep us entertained for a long time. Let's head over so I can give you and Ralesi the tour."

"It's MY house!" Noelle protested. "Shouldn't I be giving the tour? 

"Isn't it obvious?" Susie asked, patting Kris on the back as the four of them started walking. "Kris is our fearless leader, so he should be giving the tour of our 'hideout.'"

"Works for me!" Ralesi stated with an excited little jump.

Kris gave Susie an amused smile that indicated he appreciated the sentiment behind her statement. "I guess someone does need to be, even if it's just because that's tradition for teams like ours."

"I haven't signed up for any team yet, guys." Noelle reminded them. "Besides, I still don't know how to control this stand of mine."

"Az will take care of that, I'm sure." Kris reassured her. "Just relax about it for now."

The four continued their walk with mostly idle chatter. Kris questioned Ralsei about how he was getting along with his little helper jobs at the school, and how his mom was doing. Noelle, meanwhile, was mostly quiet, still seeming extremely nervous around Susie.

It was only when they had reached the front of Noelle's huge mansion house that the doe seemed to get the courage to ask her a question.

"S-so, Susie, I...don't think I've seen your stand yet. What does it do?"

Now that was something Susie was always happy to answer. "Lemme show you, little girl." She answered with a smirk. "Red Buster!" She called, summoning her stand in front of the group and having it get it's battleaxe in hand. She took a moment to admire how the stand's ruby colored scales seemed to glisten like gemstones. 

"It can't do any fancy time rewinding like Kris or anything, but it hits like a truck!" She puffed her chest out proudly as Red Buster swung the axe idly through the air, in the direction of Noelle's house.

To everyone's surprise, the thoughtless cut through the empty air produced a gleaming red wave of energy in the shape of the cut, looking like a wound in the very air itself. 

The wave shot forward, chopping right through some flowers that were sitting to either side of the door before passing right through the front wall of the house. Much to everyone's relief, it didn't seem to damage the building despite having torn the flowers to ribbons.

"Uh...it's never done that before." Susie assured Noelle, her own jaw hanging slightly open from the realization of this new ability of hers.

"R-right..." Noelle mumbled, looking a little pale. "L-let's just get inside, shall we?"

Kris, for his part, seemed enthused at seeing Susie's new ability in action. Not that one unfamiliar with him would have been able to tell, but Susie noticed the subtle changes in his posture that indicated he was excited to see it in action. 

With a smile, a sigh, and a slow shaking of her head, Susie followed the rest of the group into Noelle's house. It seemed like she was finding out more about her stand every day. If what the Knight had said about stands changing was true, it meant that she herself was getting stronger, and that made her feel all the more glad she had met Kris.

<\-- To be continued...


	21. Overdrive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne asks Asgore about his past, and learns some surprising things about the old monster.

"I just can't make any sense of it." Frisk groaned, putting their head in their hands as they took a seat across from Undyne at Asgore's dinner table. "There's too much going on at once, and I don't know what's related to what."

Undyne, for her part, had to agree. First they had that out of towner die in the libraby, then father Alvin went missing right as they were about to get his help with the investigation, next some substitute teacher that nobody in town knew before a week ago disappears, and now to top it all off there had been another pile of monster dust found at the train station. 

"This stupid little town has two extremes: boring as fuck and batshit insane." Undyne grumbled as she sipped from her fourth cup of coffee that day. Herself, Frisk, and Asgore had been running themselves ragged searching for Father Alvin or any clue as to who had killed the out-of-towners. Nothing had turned up, and even all that nonsense at the school had yielded no clues. 

"There's more than one thing going, that's for sure." Asgore stated as he sat down, pouring all of them some tea. "But I think that if we figure even one of them out, the others will come all that much easier."

"Easier said than done." Undyne muttered in reply, noting with some annoyance the mutually knowing look that passed between Frisk and Asgore. They both knew something that she didn't, and for some reason they weren't sharing it. That idea didn't sit very well with her, especially with how close she had felt to Asgore before all of this started. 

"Asgore, do you know anyone else who might be able to help us here?" Frisk asked, a hint of desperation in their voice. "Because I honestly don't know what to do."

Asgore shook his head sadly. "Alvin was the only one who could have made this easy for us. I'm afraid we're stuck with just the three of us."

"Well I'm out of ideas too." Frisk groaned. "I've spent so much of my career investigating cases involving humans that I'd forgotten how much of a pain in the ass it is to catch someone who's killing monsters."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Undyne asked the two of them. She had felt utterly useless through the whole investigation, having no stand nor any experience dealing with them. "It's not like we can just give up at this point, not when the town's still in danger."

"I don't intend to quit." Frisk stated in reply. "But I also have no clue how we're supposed to go about this. I just don't know enough to formulate any kind of theory or even speculate on what our next lead might be."

"As much I hate to say this, perhaps we simply need to wait." Asgore suggested. "It's my experience that if destiny wants you to be involved with something, it will make sure that the trouble finds you."

"You saying that we're just at the whims of 'destiny,' then?" Undyne asked him, not at all pleased at that way of thinking.

"Not exactly." Asgore told her with a shake of his head. "I believe that it wasn't a bad thing that we tried to figure out what was going on, but we've run ourselves ragged doing so. I haven't had a full night's sleep this week, and I think I've been getting the most sleep out of the three of us."

He had a point. Undyne, for her part, had been getting maybe 3 or 4 hours a night on a good day. Frisk's policy of late night patrols to search for anything odd had increased her coffee consumption by over 150%, and yielded no results aside from that incident at the school.

"It would be nice to get a full night's sleep..." She admitted quietly. She didn't want to seem like a quitter or anything, but losing precious sleep for nothing was starting to really bother her.

"I truly believe that if we're meant to deal with this problem, we'll find out what it is eventually." Asgore stated confidently. "But we need some time to relax. Especially since we have no idea what's going on."

"I guess I can get behind that." Frisk said, leaning back in their chair. "I could do with some time to enjoy this quiet little place. After all. It seems pretty pleasant."

"It'd still feel a bit weird to be lazing around when there's still a case to solve." Undyne mumbled. 

"And we WILL solve it." Asgore said confidently. "We just need rest, and time. Hopefully the combination will yield a clue."

"Agreed." Frisk said with a smile and a nod as he got up from his seat. "Since we're all in agreement, I'm going to head back to my hotel and take a nap. Don't have too much fun without me, okay?"

"Sleep well, punk." Undyne said wearily as the human left her alone with Asgore. To her, this seemed as good a time as any to ask the question that had been burning in her mind for a while now.

 

"So, Undyne, would you-" Asgore began happily, obviously eager for some time alone with her.

"Who's "HIM"?" she asked suddenly, cutting Asgore off. 

"Pardon me?" The big monster asked, his expression one of utter bafflement. 

"The day Frisk first arrived, you and them were talking about something. Something you didn't want me to hear. What was it?"

At this, Asgore buried his face in his hands with a groan of despair. The reaction made Undyne feel awful for bringing it up, but she just had to know at least why he was hiding something from her.

"Undyne...please..." Asgore whimpered under his breath. "Please don't give me the same choice that Tori did..."

"Woah, hold on, big guy." she said, softening her tone to assure him that she wasn't angry at him. "I just...felt a little hurt that there was something you felt you needed to keep from me, that's all. Especially with how close we've been for a while. I didn't mean to make you upset or anything. Especially not like this."

Being soft or comforting with her speech was not her strong suit, and that probably hadn't been the best choice of words. Still, she couldn't just let the doubts that she was having stay buried. That was a recipe for ruining a relationship.

"No...it's okay." Asgore finally said, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "I just..panicked for a moment, is all. This secret that Frisk and I share...it's what made Tori leave me."

Undyne couldn't believe what she was hearing. Who would leave someone like Asgore over some silly little secret? 

"Nine years ago...well, almost 10 now. I left my wife and adopted son on a journey. There was something I had to do." His tone was grave and his words slow, as if he was trying to tell her the story without giving any details.

"Strange things had been going on in this town then too, though they were a bit more subtle than what's happening now. Frisk and Gerson, my friends, helped me investigate. Together we uncovered an..." 

At this point he paused, seeming entirely unsure of what to say, a clearly age old fear in his eyes.

"An evil." He said at last. "And the three of us set off on a quest to destroy it. My dear old friend Gerson lost his life in that battle, but we won. We destroyed the evil."

Undyne's heart skipped a beat. She hadn't known that Asgore had gone on some kind of "save the world" type of adventure. It was a surprise, but not an unwelcome one, that he was apparently a bad ass in addition to being the nicest guy she had ever met.

"But it was not to last, or so I heard from Frisk. Someday, that evil would return to haunt my bloodline as it had done since time immemorial. With nothing else to do, I returned home to live out the rest of my life with my family. Yet, I couldn't tell Tori about what I had faced, even though it haunted me every day for years afterwards."

"Why couldn't you tell her?" Undyne asked, excited by the tale, even though she could now guess the sad end it was approaching.

"It would have put her in danger. This evil I fought...it only cares about people who know it exists. As long as Tori and Kris didn't know about it, they were safe."

"But you can tell me?" She asked for clarification. 

"I...may not have told you enough to put you in danger. I don't know. If I have put you danger, then I'll never forgive myself. It's just...Tori isn't exactly the type who can face an evil like that. She doesn't have the strength in her gentle, tender soul to stand up to it. You, I think, could face it if you had to, though I desperately hope you never have to." 

She put a hand on his huge, broad shoulder reassuringly. "If it comes back to bother you, I want to face it with you. Whatever it is."

"I don't want to say that you need a stand to face it, but...it certainly helps. Though I certainly appreciate the sentiment." Asgore said with a sigh, giving her a warm smile. "Anyway, I came home and had to hide all this from Tori. I guess she noticed, because we became more and more distant. She thought I was cheating on her, not that I blame her, but I didn't realize it until we divorced. By that time, my denial was like shoveling in a snowstorm, useless and poorly planned. You know what happened next."

Undyne couldn't find any words. Making him recall the memories of what lead up to his divorce made her feel like garbage, like she had hurt him in some way.

"I'm sorry, big guy." She whispered. "Guess I shouldn't be so nosy, huh?

Suddenly, Asgore's face brightened and he bolted up from his chair with a wide smile on his face. "Don't be so down, Undyne! I just realized that this is a great opportunity to teach you something I've been keeping under my belt for a while now. I bet you'll love it!"

With that, he ran over to the fridge and took out a single egg before taking out a pan and setting on the stove. 

"I won't tell you any more about what I faced those years ago, just in case you're still safe after my minimal description. But this skill, this ancient martial art will help you out no matter what!"

Setting the egg in the pan, he took a few deep, controlled breaths in. Soon, Undyne's eyes went wide as she saw sparks of powerful energy running down his arms and into his palms.

"Sunlight Yellow..." Asgore began, raising his hand up and bringing his open hand down in a karate chop motion onto the egg, the energy flowing out of his hand and into the pan, quickly cooking the egg as if the stove had been on for over half an hour.

"OVERDRIVE!" He finished, his voice as dramatic as Undyne had imaged he could sound. For her part, she couldn't have been more excited. She was about to learn an ancient martial art, and from Asgore of all people no less! She felt as excited as she had when she watched those japanese cartoons as a kid, and far more excited than when she had joined the police force.

"This is hamon, the power of the sun! So, what do you say? You ready for a few lessons before we curl up for a movie?" He asked, an almost nostalgic smile on his face, as if remembering another happy time in his life.

"Fuck yeah!" She responded, unable to stop herself from doing an excited jump. Tonight was going to make up for all the missed sleep and more. More time with Asgore was always fun, martial arts or not. She'd just have to be real careful not to burn his house down by accident with a power like that... 

<\-- To be Continued


	22. The Dream Master

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noelle finally has her meeting with Asriel in the most unexpected circumstances.

Noelle went to bed that night feeling both tired and let down. She had got to hang out with Susie and Kris like she wanted, but the two of them had been so focused on each other that they barely seemed to notice anyone else. Not that Ralesi wasn't good company or anything, but she had wanted to talk with Susie more than she had gotten to.

All in all, it hadn't been that good of a day. Between Asriel seemingly blowing her off when she went to talk to him about this stand that she supposedly had and then being practically ignored by Susie.

At least everyone had gone home for the day, so she could finally sleep. It was shaping up to be the best part of the day at this point, if she was being honest. 

Sleep came easily to her that night. The days events had mentally exhausted her. Probably from being a nervous wreck around the big purple dragon all day.

It was a great surprise to her when she opened her eyes to suddenly find herself in a huge, luxurious bed instead of the comparatively modest but still very comfortable bed she had at home. 

More than that, the very room around her looked like it was in a castle instead of her real home. The walls were a grey-ish white stone brick, decorated with tapestries and stained glass windows. 

She could feel the familiar fear begin to well up in her, even as she rose cautiously from the red silk sheets and velvet pillows of the bed to move toward the room's large oaken door. As she rose, she noted that her clothes were the same kind she normally wore around town. Another chill ran down her spine as she remembered that she had definitely not gone to bed in these.

To her further surprise, someone on the other side of the door opened it up before she reached it, revealing the smiling face of Asriel. He seemed to be wearing...plate armor? Indeed, after a moment's more of gazing upon the boss monster, Noelle realized he was dressed up as the spitting image of a knight in shining armor out of a fairy tale.

"A-Asriel?" She stammered fearfully, the fact that he had been waiting right outside this strange bedroom for her putting her on guard.

"That's right, that's me, baby." He replied, his smug grin only getting wider.

"What are you d-doing here? And where is here, ev-" She stopped her question as she finally realized what was going on. It was pretty obvious by this point. "Oh, I get it. I'm dreaming." She said with a sigh of relief, the fear and panic that had been welling up in her quickly dissipating as she realized she wasn't in any real danger.

That DID raise the question of why she was dreaming about Asriel. She hadn't met him until the day before, and even then they had barely talked. Not that it was unpleasant, exactly. Asriel was weird, sure, but in the "tall, dark and handsome stranger" kind of way. Still, it was a little weird that she was dreaming about someone she had only just met.

"Well, yes and no." Asriel said, still smiling. "You ARE dreaming, don't me wrong. But I'm really here, and so are you."

"Sounds like something a figment of my imagination might say." Noelle huffed, her certainty that none of this was real giving her the courage to talk back.

Asriel let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head slightly before giving her a shrug. "Should have figured this would be your first reaction. Oh well, keep thinking I'm not real if you like. It won't change what I'm about to teach you." 

"And...what would that be, exactly?" The doe asked him, suddenly having doubts about this Asriel just being imaginary.

"Lots of things." He replied, starting to walk down the hallway that the door led into. "Take a walk with me and I'll give you a little rundown of what you have to work with here, after that we can talk about your stand."

Noelle debated not following him. A part of her just wanted to stay in this room and try to wake up or something. Yet, if there was a chance to learn what her stand did, she figured she should take it. Especially if she was dreaming, since that meant she wasn't in any real danger, right?

With no shortage of hesitance, she began to follow Asriel down the hallway, her heartbeat starting to pick up the pace as a feeling of unease came over her. 

"Good girl." Asriel said with a gentle chuckle. "I knew you'd work up nerve. That or the idea of it all being a dream would make you a little more bold."

The more he talked, the more she believed that this was the real Asriel. The growing acceptance of this made her feel more and more uncomfortable as she walked with him down the hallway, wondering what in the world she was going to see on the other side.

Her fears and worries seemed to evaporate when Asriel opened the door on the other end of the hallway, revealing that it opened onto a castle wall.

The sight on the other side was so beautiful that she could help but rush out and have a look over the battlements. The castle she was in, for it was indeed a castle, sat in the middle of a lush, vibrant forest. Birds in all sorts of calming yet exotic colors flew about above the treetops, their chirping a calming sound compared to the counterparts Noelle had experience with.

Despite the bright sunshine, the weather was hardly unpleasantly warm. In fact, it felt as cool as a comfortable fall day. The breeze was just right to give her a feeling of being cooled, while also not being enough to chill her uncomfortably. 

Topping it all off was the sight of a large waterfall outside of the castle. The water flowing down from the top of a large hill and down into a stream that glistened in the sunlight as if there were a multitude of tiny gemstones on the surface. The fall seemed to be flowing quickly, and yet only made the gentle, comforting sound of a stream.

Managing to tear her eyes away from the forest for a moment, she gave the castle itself a once over. The exterior was all a white, marble brick, it's towers topped with gold that shined like beacons in the sun.

She was currently standing on the outer most wall, giving her a good view of the inner courtyard. A multitude of figures bustled about below, some wearing armor similar to Asriel's and others wearing clothes that made them look as if they had come from Noelle's world. 

Besides the people, the courtyard has paths of marble inlaid with gold that were lined with colorful and well kept arrangements of flowers. Occasionally these paths turned into bridges over the shallow streams that ran through the courtyard, making it feel all the more alive and friendly.

"Wow..." she breathed, unsure what else to say at such a sight. It made one thing very clear: she absolutely was not in hometown anymore.

"This is the dream world." Asriel stated, sauntering slowly away from the doorway to Noelle's side at the wall. "Specifically, this is the Castle of the Sacred Font, one of the places in this world where dreamers come to receive happy, pleasant dreams."

"B-but dreams all happen in your subconscious. How can this be a real place?" Noelle asked, looking up at the boss monster's smiling face with wide, eager eyes.

"That's not quite right." Asriel responded, clearly taking pride in being able to teach her about this odd place she had found herself in. "Dreams are the soul unguarded. When a person enters a dream state, their soul wanders to this place, the dream lands. There, the person's subconscious influences the world around them, building anything from a w-...a happy dream to a nightmare depending on where the soul found itself."

"So...I'm here, but I'm also back in my bed in hometown?" Noelle asked, scratching her head in confusion. "I'm not sure I get this."

"Don't worry about it too much." Asriel told her with a brief pat on the head. "That's not the kind of detail that you need to worry about anyway. What really matters is that your stand can influence this world in a much more controlled fashion than most people can. Not to mention it allows you to be aware of this world much more easily than most, as evidenced by the fact that you're lucid right now."

"Wait a minute." She started, Asriel's words having raised another question. "If being lucid is so difficult, then how are you here? You don't have a stand, right?"

"You don't NEED a stand to be lucid here." Asriel replied. "Just awareness of the world itself and a lot of practice. Given Kris and Susie's experience with your stand, I think you also have the ability to make people you pull into dreams lucid as well." 

"Still seems a bit convenient that you know all this." The doe mumbled. 

"What can I say? I'm a convenient guy!" Asriel proclaimed, puffing out his chest proudly. "I mean, without a stand, being convenient is pretty much all I've got going for me."

Noelle decided not to ask about how he knew any of this information he was feeding her. It would probably take too long to explain anyway. 

"Okay..." she continued, feeling comfortable enough with him to keep asking questions, at least. "So...this is cool and all, but why did you have to meet me here instead of telling me about it when I went to see you last morning?" 

"I was just about to get to that part." He said, his smile growing a little wider. "I want you to make a little patch of ice in that river out there." He continued, gesturing out toward the stream that flowed outside of the castle.

"B-but how am I supposed to do that?" She asked incredulously. It seemed like he was suddenly expecting some kind of power from her that she was sure she didn't have. 

"Just focus on the task." Asriel said, rather unhelpfully. "I know it sounds cliche and dumb, but if I'm right about your stand, that's all you'll need to do."

Turning her gaze away from the boss monster and down to the river, Noelle tried her best to do as he asked. Surprisingly, it didn't take much focus at all. Within moments of focusing her will on the task, a disc of ice began to form on the river's surface. Looking back to the wall, she was startled to see a grey, ghostly looking figure standing behind her. The being had a cervine skull for a head, with blank, empty eye sockets devoid of any light. The rest of it's body was obscured by a tattered looking cloak, the hood drawn back to reveal the eerie looking head.

She was so startled by the being's appearance that she almost fell backwards off the wall, stopped only by Asriel's firm grasp on her arm.

"Noelle, calm down!" He said sternly, his usual smile replaced by a concerned look. "Take a deep breath and tell me what's wrong."

"T-there's a...a...." She panted out, her eyes fixed on the being, unable to get the sentence out. If it were not for Asriel holding her firmly, she would have bolted away for sure.

Asriel's eyes turned to where she was looking, and then back to her. "Noelle, I can't see whatever you're seeing, but I'm betting it's your stand. Don't be afraid of it. It's there to protect you. Think of it like a guardian angel, okay?"

Asriel's assurances, coupled with the fact that the being disappeared when she started to wish it away, calmed her down considerably. It was going to take a while to get used to...that, even if it was under her control.

"Forget about it for now." Asriel told her. "Just pretend it's not there for now. I want you to make the wind blow a little faster. You got that, Noelle?"

This time she was more eager to try, emboldened by her earlier success. She might have been a little too eager, however, as the wind soon started blowing with enough strength to force the both of them to hold onto the wall's battlements.

"I said a LITTLE faster, Noelle!" Asriel called over to her with a short laugh, clearly not actually angry with her.

With a little more focus, she brought the winds back to their previous state, taking a moment to catch her breath afterwards. Discovering this power had got her all excited, and not in the usual scared way. Now she would finally have an ability like Kris, Susie, and Ralesi did. Good thing too, because she was starting to feel out of place with them.

"See what I mean?" Asriel asked her. "You have a great power here, Noelle. Your stand allows you to pull people into this dreamworld, a world where you have more power than almost anyone else. But you have a lot to learn about it. Fortunately, I've walked in this land for a long time now, and in this place we've got all the time in the world. So what do you say, wanna make this a nightly thing?"

Noelle couldn't have stopped herself from giving the goat monster an eager nod "yes" in reply. Even more than her new power, there was a whole new world to explore. Besides, making new friends was always fun, and it seemed like she was going to be spending a lot of her time with Asriel now.

<\-- To be continued


	23. Night of Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susie chooses to walk home alone and is forced to face a powerful foe one on one as a result.

It suddenly occurred to Susie that she hadn't actually slept at home in two days. Not that she had minded spending the night over at Asgore's place, of course, those nights had been some of the nicest she could remember. 

Of course, as much as she had enjoyed it, she couldn't just leave her mom alone forever. For as nasty as she was when she was drunk, she did try her best to make up for it when she was sober. Wasn't her fault that the nasty shit she said when she wasn't herself stuck more than the nice stuff did. 

The walk back home was a nice time for reflecting on things like this, especially with the sun already having set and the sidewalk being completely clear of pedestrians. As much as she really did enjoy Kris' company, some time to herself was certainly helpful to get all her thoughts in line. 

These thoughts included her feelings about Kris, a subject she still wasn't fully sure about. She trusted him now, enough to be willing to die for the little freak if push came to shove, but she still felt...odd around him. Not odd in a bad way for sure, she enjoyed every moment she had with him. Especially with the knowledge that given their situation, any of those moments could possibly be their last. 

After mulling it over for a while, she decided to chalk up whatever weird things she was feeling to how unfamiliar she was with having friends. A lot easier to explain it away with that than to spend more valuable brainpower on it. Kris was a good friend, and whatever she felt about him hardly changed that one way or the other.

Her musings were cut short by the sound of a motorcycle engine coming from down the street. Knowing what that most likely meant at this hour of the night, she summoned Red Buster and got herself in a fighting stance. Lancer hadn't been a problem yet, but she still wasn't sure whether to consider him a friend or an enemy. 

As lancer's bike passed by her, a tall figure clad in a silver racing jumpsuit decorated with large black spade patterns leapt off of the bike, landing in front of Susie with a dramatic mid air spin. 

Susie could only manage to roll her eyes as Lancer's bike stopped behind her after doing a few small loops on the street. She found it very difficult to be intimidated by anybody who would associate themselves with Lancer.

"All right, Lancer, who's this joker?" She asked the young darkener, keeping her eyes trained on the stranger. 

"Oh? You're familiar with her, dear nephew?" The tall figure asked in a condescending tone, his visor displaying an electronic facsimile of a face to emote with as he spoke.

"Only as an enemy, uncle!" Lancer quickly blurted out. "Of course you wouldn't catch ME helping our enemies!"

Susie rolled her eyes. He was a terrible liar, a trait which wouldn't suit him well in the dangerous game he was playing with both sides in this little conflict.

"Hmm, perhaps 'not CATCH you' is the operative term there." The stranger said, shaking his head. "Nevertheless, it won't matter after too long. Once the night is over, we shall have corrected the mistakes made by the hearts and gotten rid of these pesky lighteners. More importantly, you will get to see how to properly serve our generous lord and master."

"You gonna introduce yourself or what?" Susie asked, an irritated tone in her voice. Why did these pricks have to take so damn long to get to the point? They both knew what they were there for.

"Such an impatient one, aren't you?" The stranger said with a sigh. "Fine. I am the Jack of Spades, but you can just call me 'jack.' Everyone does." 

"I'm gonna be calling you an ambulance in a minute unless you wise up and crawl back to whatever hole you came out of." She growled at him, mentally chiding herself for having the bright idea of walking back home alone.

"You'll have to catch me first, brat!" Jack declared. "Night of Fire!"

As he called out what Susie assumed to be his stand's name, a ghostly, slender figure clad in full armor appeared behind him. Susie quickly noticed that it's fingertips had wicked looking claws on the ends, but it lacked any other apparent weapon. Unless the blue flames coming out of the top of its helmet, the backs of its heels, and various vent looking ports scattered across the armor were anything but decoration. 

Suddenly, Jack rushed forward with an incredible speed. He moved so quickly, in fact, that Susie barely had time to register his movement before he was about 10 meters away and on the other side of her.

As she quickly turned to face him, she noticed a fresh cut on her already fairly beat up jeans, a small bit of dust trickling out of it. The cut didn't seem to be deep or serious in the slightest, but the ease with which he inflicted it was enough to put Susie into a defensive state of mind.

"Watch and learn, dear nephew!" Jack of Spaces called over to Lancer, who was watching the two of them with an anxious look. "This won't take long at all."

His legs bent slightly as if he was about to start running, giving Susie a good indication that he was about to go for another pass at her. 

She decided to try and stop him is his tracks with a barrage of punches from Red Buster, directed to where she though he would move on his way past her. 

Her hunch was right, as the Jack soon rushed toward her a second time, his stand following along at his impossibly fast pace. The barrage of fists her stand threw in his direction did little to stop him, as he simply took a slightly longer path around her, putting a second cut into her back as he passed behind her.

"Not so cocky now, are you, brat?" The Jack sneered as she turned around again, clenching her teeth in silent anger. 

She had never thought that any stand could be faster than Red Buster, so a situation like this had not been one of the many she'd been mentally rehearsing in her head for the past few days.

Given that being on solid ground didn't seem to be working, she decided to have Red Buster hoist her up the side of a nearby building. Getting initial height with a powerful leap, and using the windows as handholds, she quickly got halfway up the building mere moments after receiving her second cut.

"I'd like to see you run up THIS, you quick little shit!" She taunted her opponent as she made her way up the building, intending to use her ranged attack to counterattack once she was safetly up.

The only response she got was a sneer from the Jack's electronic features before he suddenly sped off in the opposite direction, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. 

Susie was initially hit with a mixture of confusion and disappointment. Why was he running away? And more importantly, why did the first person to give her a straight up fair fight such a massive wimp?

In the couple seconds it took her to ascend to the top of the building, she noticed that the dust cloud of her retreating opponent was now moving back toward her. He hadn't been running away after all, but building up speed!

Still, she still had a trump card that her opponent didn't know about. 

"Hey, Lancer!" She called to the young darkener who was still sitting on his bike nearby. "Do what your uncle said and watch carefully. I'm about to show you something pretty damn cool!"

She waited just a second more, by which time the Jack of Spades was right underneath her, and then swiped at the air beneath her with Red Buster's axe. The wave of energy went downwards towards her opponent, who had some how managed to start running up the building as if it was a flat surface. 

The distance between them gave the Jack of Spades just a second to react, changing his path to avoid the wave by moving to the far right of it. 

One second, however, turned out not to be enough to completely avoid it. Much to Susie's delight, the wave of energy hit Night of Fire's left arm, leaving a deep cut. The pain from the attack sent the Jack of Spades falling back down to the pavement, clutching at his right arm in shock.

"Guess all Lancer's gonna get is a front row seat to me kicking your ass!" Susie said proudly as she fired another few energy blasts down toward her opponent. 

"Don't get so cocky, brat." Her opponent grumbled before leaping to his feet and out of the way of Susie's attacks, the waves of energy flowing harmlessly into the ground.

"I wasn't tasked by the Knight to kill you for no reason." Her opponent growled. "That little trick won't get me twice in a row."

With that declaration, he sped off away from Susie again. This time, Susie was sure he was going to try and get up to the roof again. 

Sure enough, he soon came running back with enough momentum to run up the side of the building like before. 

"You really don't learn, do you, you bastard?" Susie yelled as she sent another energy wave down towards her opponent. 

This time, to her great surprise, the Jack of Spades jumped over her attack, leaping up onto the roof and giving her a cut on her lower chest with Night of Fire as he passed by her.

"Told you I wouldn't fall for the same thing twice." The Jack of Spades said in a haughty tone. "Perhaps you'd care to surrender now so that I can bring you before the Knight alive instead of dead?"

"You kidding me?" She laughed. "You're the first one out of your pathetic bunch that's given me a straight up fight instead of sneaking around and trying some dirty little trick. There's no way I'd quit just when it's getting fun!"

Despite the wounds he had managed to inflict upon her, she felt her resolve to win as strong as ever. Failing here would be failing Kris, and he was one of the few things in the world she felt was worth fighting for like this.

"Fine." The Jack of spades sighed, sounding more annoyed than anything. "Then you'll die here."

With that, he suddenly sped towards her, knocking her off the building and down to the pavement before she had time to react.

She barely had time to get on her feet before her opponent had joined her on the streets below, circling her at speeds that made him impossible to see as he scratched and clawed at her with Night of Fire. 

The cuts weren't particularly serious or deep on their own, but they stung like hell and Susie was accumulating them rapidly. Worse than that, her own attempts to hit her opponent were amounting to nothing. Her punches were the fastest attack she could manage, but she simply wasn't able to predict where he was going to be at any given time; he was moving much too fast for her to see, let alone predict. 

"See, Lancer!" The Jack of Spades shouted to his nephew as he continued his vicious attack. "Some people are born to win, like our family. Others are simply born to lose. It's not of their fault, they just weren't born with the power to triumph and overcome adversity like we are!"

His words enraged Susie to no end, but she knew letting herself get pissed off wouldn't win her the fight. She tried to think about what Kris would do if she were in his position, a process that was made difficult by all the sharp, piercing pains that her foe's attacks were driving into her. 

Suddenly, like a bright light shining through the darkness and pain, the solution hit her.

"Power? You think that's what wins you fights?" She growled, a sudden light and ferocity appearing in her eyes even as she could feel the gashes in her sides being deepened with every pass her foe made around her. "Listen up, Lancer. It's nothing you were born with that wins you battles. What wins you battles...is resolve!"

With that, she drove Red Buster's fist right where she knew the Jack of Spades would be. His face ran straight into her punch, being hurt more by his own momentum than the actual force of the blow.

The hit to the face shattered the Jack of Spades' mask, sending a small cloud of ceramic and monster dust flying all around Susie while her opponent was sent flying backwards, falling flat on his back and the street.

"H-how'd you do that!?" Lancer asked, a look of shock and relief on his face in equal measure. 

"Easy." Susie replied with a smile. "He kept attacking the same areas with every pass around. Through all the pain, I could feel the pattern of his movements instead of see it. That's what resolve is, Lancer. Keeping your wits and willpower through tough moments, that's what will let you win."

She had used to think the way the Jack of Spades did, which is partly why she used to pick on the quiet, unassuming Kris before she had gotten to know him. During their time together, he had managed to teach her that quiet deliberation in a battle often counted for more than pure strength. Not to say that her own raw power hadn't helped at all, but learning to use her brains had been an invaluable lesson. 

The young darkener's eyes were now gazing at her with a look filled with admiration and respect, despite the fact that she had just punched his uncle to the floor. 

"R-resolve..." the Jack of Spades mumbled, slowly rising to his feet. Apparently that blow hadn't done him in, even though Susie could see dust leaking from multiple places in his pale face, his eyes still obscured by what remained of his helmet.

"You haven't seen MY resolve yet, brat!" He spat at her, before calling out his stand once more and running circles around her again, this time at a range well outside of punching distance. 

Before she could figure out what was going on, she realized that high speed winds were being created within the circle he was running, quickly beginning to spin her around at a dizzying speed, slowly lifting her off the ground in the process.

"This is my secret technique, you lowborn scum!" Her opponent yelled at her, his voice full of spite and bile. "This will finish you off for sure. Once you're lifted high up in the air, above even the clouds, I'll stop running and the fall will kill you! Hell, maybe I'll even go get a nice spike for you to land on when you hit the bottom. You'll see that your 'resolve' isn't worth anything in the face of my stand's power!"

Susie couldn't help but roll her eyes. This was a ridiculous thing to try at this point. Clearly he had forgotten what she could do. 

"Give me a break." She muttered, "You really don't learn, do you?"

Next, she simply pulled out Red Buster's axe and let the winds do the work for her. Normally she could only manage to make a wave of energy that was the size of a quarter circle at best before it fired, but the high speed winds allowed her to create one that was a complete 360 degrees! 

The pulse of destructive energy was unavoidable to her opponent as he ran in a circle around her, especially at the speeds he was going. It tore into his midsection, sending him flying into the side of a nearby building with a loud cry of pain. His body twitched and stirred, but it didn't seem like he'd be getting up and time soon.

A quick look over at Lancer revealed that he had been thankfully unharmed by her attack. He had managed to predict it where his uncle had failed and had preemptively hit the deck.

Taking a moment to catch her breath, she assessed the state her body was in. She had a couple deeper gashes on either side of her chest, and the rest of her was covered in smaller scratches, though none of her wounds seemed life threatening. 

Deciding it was time to finish this, she slowly strode towards her fallen opponent, axe in hand and ready to finish him off.

"W-wait!" She heard Lancer call from behind her. "He's done. You won! There's no need to kill him, right?"

"There's every reason, Lancer!" She snapped back. "I know he's a relative of yours and all, but he has to die if you want us to be able to defeat the Knight!"

"The Knight's going to punish him if he comes back alive anyway!" Lancer continued protesting, going so far as to run in between Susie and Jack of Spades. "Killing him's the kind of thing the Knight might do. You're supposed to be better than that, right?"

Susie thought about it for a moment. Even if Lancer wasn't in the way, she wasn't sure she could go through with it now that she'd had a few seconds to calm down. The other time she had killed somebody had been in direct self defense. This was different. The guy was down and definitely not going to get back up and fight her any time soon. 

With a groan of disgust, she withdrew Red Buster. "If he gets back up and hurts someone again, I'm blaming you." She told Lancer, before suddenly coming to a horrifying thought. If she had been attacked, Kris was probably in danger too. By now he might already have won or lost whatever fight he was in, but she had to try and get him as fast as she could one way or the other. 

"Lancer!" She sudden;y snapped, making the darkener jump. "I'm going to need you to drive me to Kris. Now!"

Too scared to offer any protest by now, Lancer quickly summoned his stand and allowed Susie to get on the back of it. 

"You're gonna have to give me directions." He told her. "Because I don't exactly live around here, y'know?"

Susie gave him a nod and grunt of acknowledgment before giving him the directions to Noelle's house. She'd start from there and have Lancer drive along the route Kris would have taken to get him. That way they'd be sure to find him.

As they were leaving the scene of the fight, Susie locked eyes with a single passerby, a human dressed in a long trenchcoat. She could have mistaken them for Kris if she was less familiar with her favorite human. She was sure that the other human saw her beat up state, but could only hope that nothing would come of it later. 

Strangely, she was almost certain that the human smirked at her as she passed by.

<\-- To be Continued


	24. "Motorhead", part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Susie fights the Jack of Spades, Kris comes face to face with an enemy of his own.

"Motorhead"

It seemed like a nice night for once. 

Kris had just finished dropping Ralesi off at his mom's place and was making the walk to his dad's place so he could finally go to sleep. 

The day had been fun, of that there was no doubt. Hanging out with Noelle, Ralesi, and especially Susie had made him feel like a normal person for once. They had spent the day with video games, snacks, and showing off with their stands for those who could. It had felt a bit like catching up on all the stuff he had missed out on during the many years he had spent just trying to be invisible. 

When he really thought about it, things were going pretty well. Even with the Knight's assassins gunning for him and Susie, he felt much happier than he could ever remember being.

As if on cue, Kris suddenly noticed a short but muscular looking figure emerge from a nearby alleyway, holding a jerrycan in his right hand. The newcomer's body looked like it was covered with rust, as if it was made of some kind of metal. The face looked more metallic than the rest of the body, with the mouth reminding Kris of the Iron Giant.

"Are you...Kris Dreemurr, by any chance?" The stranger asked with a low, gravelly, and somewhat dopey sounding voice. 

"Depends on who's asking." Kris replied, already having a fairly good guess as to where this guy had come from. 

"I'll take that as a yes, then." The stranger replied with a giggle as he took a large canteen that had been strapped to his hip and took a long swig from it. 

"I'm the jack of clubs." The stranger continued, putting away his drink. "I don't think there's any need for me to tell you why I'm here. You oughta to be well acquainted with how this goes by now."

As nice as it was to have an enemy who wasn't sneaking around in the dark for once, Kris was put on guard by how bold this particular stand user was being. If he wasn't even trying to hide, it was likely that he was amazingly confident in his stand's abilities. As much as Kris wanted to tell himself that their confidence was baseless, he couldn't be sure of that himself.

"Nice of you not to beat around the bush." Kris replied. "I'm starting to think that all the cloak and dagger stuff was a trait unique to the hearts."

"How very perceptive of you!" The Jack of Clubs laughed, emitting a loud, rusty, metallic grinding sound as he twisted his mouth into the shape of a smile. "The hearts HAVE to sneak around, since they don't tend to hold up well in a fight. Honestly you did us all a favor by getting rid of them. The whole lot was a despicable bunch."

"Do you think we could do this somewhere else?" Kris asked his soon to be opponent. "This is kind of a public setting for a fight, even if it is pretty dark out." 

At this point, he was expecting to have to deal with a stand that was like Susie's. A fight like that wasn't going to be very quiet or inconspicuous, and he really would rather not have an audience.

To his disappointment, the Jack of Clubs shook his head in response. "Sorry, but I don't exactly care about being inconspicuous. Besides, can't let you lead me into a trap or something like that. Letting your opponent choose the arena is a big no-no."

"Fair, I guess." Kris shrugged. "I guess we're at the part where you brag about your stand's powers, then?"

"Not that either." Jack of Clubs replied with a quick shake of his head. "We've got a long fight ahead of us, and I don't plan to give you any advantages. What I can do is offer you a drink. Care for some?" With that, he took his canteen and offered it to Kris. 

Being so close to it now, Kris could detect the faint odor of gasoline coming from the container, prompting him to take a step back from the Jack of clubs.

"Uhh...I'll pass." Kris replied, wondering what exactly was up with this guy. He was starting to suspect brain damage.

"Suit yourself." The Jack of Clubs grunted, before suddenly bringing the flask to his metallic lips again and greedily gulping down the contents. This time, Kris noticed drops of what was very clearly gasoline dripping down the strange darkener's chin as he drank up the contents of his canteen. 

"Ah...." The darkener sighed, dropping the canteen to the ground and setting the jerry can down gently. "Now we can get started."

That was all the prompting Kris needed to call out his stand, putting it in a defensive stance. He didn't need to take any unnecessary risks until he had a good idea of what he was dealing with here.

"Motorhead!" The Jack of Clubs shouted as he called out his stand. 

"Motorhead" was considerably taller and more intimidating than it's user, with large gears, nuts, bolts, and screws adorning its skin, which looked like solid steel. 

It moved much faster than it looked like it could, and Kris quickly found himself barely able to get his stand in position to block his enemy's first punch. 

Despite having stopped the blow from dealing any damage to him, he still felt it, as the sheer force of the blow shoved him back a meter or so. 

"You know what I love about your world?" The Jack of Clubs asked n a tone that made it clear he wasn't expecting an answer. "It's all your wonderful, wonderful gasoline! That stuff is rar in the dark world, but up here it's everywhere!"

At this point, Kris was beginning to get an idea of what this stand's ability was. It didn't seem overly complicated, which was something, but it was still dangerous nonetheless if he was correct.

"It's the lifeblood of the world's economy, even in this sleepy little town!" The Jack continued, sounding more and more excited as he went on. "So much lovely, lovely gasoliiiiine!" He screeched his last word as he threw another punch at Kris. This time, his positioning was less than perfect, and the blow cracked his stand's hand slightly, causing blood to drip slowly from his own hand as a cut appeared on it.

Done playing defensively, Kris quickly launched a series of quick punches aimed towards Motorhead's chest. The blows landed, as Kris' opponent made no attempt to dodge, but they did no apparent damage to Motorhead or its user. In fact, the punches did more to hurt Kris than they hurt his enemy, as he could feel shocks in his own hands as his blows connected, as if he was hitting solid metal.

"Do you get it now?" The Jack of clubs laughed. "My stand's much, much stronger than yours! I wasn't sure at first, but it looks like I don't have anything to worry about at all! Man, what a relief that is."

All that talking seemed to distract Kris' opponent quite a bit. He had initially thought that this darkener wasn't like the others, and would at least refrain from boasting like the rest.

Kris was glad to see that he was wrong, as the distraction gave him the opportunity to drive his stand's foot into the pavement, kicking up loose debris that his stand then punched toward Motorhead's user. 

The chunks of rock ripped into the Jack of Clubs' body, sending bursts of monster dust flying in every direction as the darkener was sent flying backwards into the side of a building. 

Kris had to resist the urge to celebrate his victory prematurely. Despite the fact that Motorhead had vanished for now, he was almost sure that the fight wasn't over yet. 

He was proven right, as the Jack of Clubs began to rise to his feet. Amazingly, the wounds inflicted by Kris' improvised projectiles seemed to quickly seal themselves up right before his eyes. 

"Rrrngh..." The darkener groaned as he got to his feet, already fully healed. "I underestimated you. You're a lot smarter than I figured. Guess it's no wonder you beat the hearts. Still, that was the only time I'm going to let you get the upper hand."

With that, he threw Motorhead towards Kris again. This time, however, the human noticed he seemed to be moving considerably slower. So slow, in fact, that Kris was easily able to move his own stand in his foe's path and put a few hard punches into Motorhead's chest. 

This time, instead of his own hands being hurt, Motorhead was thrown backwards again. The force of the blows also driving the Jack of Clubs back into the wall for the second time.

"Seems like your stand lost a bit of strength from that exchange." Kris commented. "Maybe you should rethink your approach here. I'd really rather not have to kill you here after you had the decency to challenge me straight up."

 

Just then, Kris' eyes went wide as he noticed that the Jack of Clubs had managed to pick up the jerrycan that he had set down earlier just before Kris had launched him back, and was now drinking greedily from it. 

Kris quickly stomped the pavement with his stand again, throwing more debris towards his opponent. This time, however, Motorhead was easily able to intercept the projectiles, batting them out of the way as it returned to the speed it had at the start of the fight.

"You're the one who shouldn't get too cocky, Kris!" The Jack of Clubs growled. "You managed to surprise me with that one attack and exhaust my fuel on healing, but now I'm fueled up again!"

With that declaration, Motorhead darted forward with blinding speed and gave Kris' own stand a barrage of punches to the chest. The force of these blows sent Kris flying through the window of the nearby grocery store. 

After he finally hit the wall on the other side of the store with a thud and feeling of cracked ribs, he managed to pull himself up and take stock of himself. Every breath he took in was painful, and multiple shards of glass had embedded themselves in his back. 

"Don't suppose you can pay for the window, huh?" Came a somewhat familiar voice from behind the grocery store's old bar. Kris turned his head to see Sans, the owner of the repurposed bar leaning back in a chair behind the bar structure, seemingly unconcerned about the destruction that had just taken place in his shop.

"Just don't ask questions" Kris panted out. "You can send the bill to this guy's immediate relatives after I kick his ass."

At that moment, the Jack of Clubs climbed through the hole in the window caused by Kris' unintentional entrance. 

"Ready to give up yet?" The short darkener asked with a sneer. "I doubt you're feeling too well after that one, and I'd honestly hate to make you suffer more than necessary before you die." 

"What are you talking about?" Kris asked sarcastically, spitting up a particularly thick glob of blood. "I've clearly got you right where I want you."

With that, he charged toward the Jack of Clubs, sending his stand up to attack the ceiling above his opponent. As he expected, his charge earned him a solid punch from Motorhead, sending him flying into a wall again as his foe simply stepped away from the now crumbling ceiling. 

This was part of his plan, however, and a smirk came over his face as he rewinded the Jack of Clubs so that they were standing right in the path of the falling rubble from the ceiling. 

"B-but I moved!" The Jack of Clubs shouted as the debris from the ceiling fell down onto him, burying him under it. 

The blow from Motorhead had hurt like hell, but it had been worth it for sure. Hopefully healing from that would exhaust those "fuel reserves" that the Jack of Clubs had talked about.

To make sure that his opponent would need to heal up, Kris approached the quickly stirring pile of rubble. Right when the Jack of clubs rose from the pile of debris, Kris laid into him with a flurry of punches before he could summon his stand. 

This time it was Kris' turn to send his opponent flying, right out of the grocery store as a matter of fact. 

"Sorry about the roof." He told Sans as he ran after the Jack of Hearts, intent on not letting his opponent recover. 

"I'll just send the bill to your mom." Sans shot back. "Might even consider not telling her about the guy you just punched through my window if you tell me whatever deep shit you're in. I like a good story."

He honestly wasn't even surprised that Sans seemed to know something about stands considering all the other crazy stuff that had been going down. Maybe the skeleton even had some knowledge of "He who Longs for Heaven."

"We'll talk later." Kris told him brusquely before running after Motorhead, intending to finish him off when he hit the ground.

He was surprised to no end when he saw Motorhead kick at the ground while the Jack of Clubs was still in the air, increasing his velocity and making him fly farther. 

"Hahaha! That was a mistake, Kris!" The Jack of Clubs shouted as he flew down the road. "Don't you know what's in this direction, you idiot!"

Kris' eyes went wide as he realized his mistake, he had punched his enemy right in the direction of the local gas station! 

He made an attempt to run towards it, but in his weakened state he knew he wasn't going to make it before his enemy had a chance to avail himself of the local petrol. 

Nevertheless, he hurried over to the gas station at the best speed his injured body could move. 

By the time he got there, he was treated to the sight of the Jack of Clubs lying beneath a leaking gas pump, guzzling down the gasoline as it escaped the machine.

He quickly sent his own stand to try and stop the Jack of Clubs from getting any more gasoline, as he was certain that he was using it to strengthen himself and his stand. 

Unfortunately, he learned he was too late when Motorhead punched his stand square across the face before he could get a guard up, sending him down to the pavement.

"Too late, Kris!" the Jack of Clubs called out. "With all this wonderful, wonderful gasoline, I've powered up again! And this time I'm wise to your tricks. This is the end for you, Dreemurr!"

At that moment, Kris believed he might be right. He had used up his rewind, and he had lost so much blood that he was surprised he was still conscious. 

His brief moment of despair was broken, however, when he heard the sounds of a motorcycle approaching. Turning to look at the source, he saw Lancer's stand rapidly approaching the gas station with Susie riding on the back. 

"Kris, look out!" He heard Susie call, as she brought out Red Buster and fired a wave of energy above where Kris was lying. He turned his head to see the attack impact Motorhead, moments before the stand would have driven its fist into his skull. 

To his surprise, the attack actually knocked the fully powered Motorhead backwards, though no damage to the user was visible.

"Kris, you all right?" Susie panted, clearly worried for him as she hurried over to his side while he struggled to his feet. 

"Better now that you're here." He told her, able to smile despite everything. "Looks like you've already had a rough time."

"Nothing I couldn't handle." She said with a smirk. "Now then, let's get down to business, shall we?" 

The two of them turned to face the Jack of Clubs, who was eyeing them with a cautious look. Despite the fact that it was a two on one now, Kris knew they still had to be careful. He was on the verge of passing out himself, and Susie had already taken some damage. 

With cautious but optimistic thoughts, he summoned hi stand again and prepared for round two.

<\-- To be continued.


	25. "Motorhead", Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susie and Kris face the Jack of Clubs together. Will their combined strength be enough to defeat their foe in their weakened states?

"What are we dealing with here, Kris?" Susie asked, her words helping Kris in the fight to keep himself from passing out. 

"I...I'm not sure." He panted. "I think he gets stronger by drinking gasoline. What I do know is that he seems to get weaker if gets damaged, even if he does heal the wounds almost instantly."

"Aww, you figured it out." The Jack of Clubs pouted sarcastically. "Gee, I wonder what gave it away?" He was keeping his stand close to him, likely to guard from any attacks Kris and Susie might manage to throw his way before he had made a plan.

"I guess I might as well explain it, since it doesn't hurt at this point." The Jack said with a shrug. "My stand's ability quite literally changed my insides around. Everyone's stomach is like an engine, converting food into energy, but because of "Motorhead," mine can convert anything into energy. Of course, it does best with fuels like gasoline. Stuff like that lets me reach levels of strength and speed that few regular stand users could handle. Though I gotta admit, you're the trickiest little sonuvabitch I've ever dealt with, Dreemurr."

"Thanks for the compliment." Kris spat back. "I'll remember it when I'm splattering your dust all over the gas station."

"I think I'm the one with the advantage here." The Jack of Clubs said smugly. "I've got pumps full of my favorite juice all around me, and both you and your friend look like you've been through hell."

A wave of nausea and exhaustion suddenly ran over Kris, making him fall to his knees for a moment. As he was recovering, he faintly heard Susie speaking quietly to Lancer, but wasn't able to determine what she said. 

Susie helped him to his feet, allowing him to look the Jack of Clubs in the eyes again. His mind began moving at a mile a minute as he began to try and think up a plan. They were on ground that favored their enemy, and the sound of Lancer's motorcycle moving away meant that they weren't going to be able to escape. 

"You got a plan, Kris?" Susie asked him, a calm determination in her voice that Kris was comforted to hear. 

"Step one is don't die." Kris replied. "I'm still working on step two."

"I'll keep him away while you try and think of something." Susie assured him. "You used your rewind already?"

Kris simply nodded in reply, having forgotten how long it would be till he got it back. 

"Just let me handle this, Kris." Susie said, positioning herself between Kris and the Jack of Clubs, who still looked to be considering his next move. "You're in worse shape than I am."

Kris gave her a nod and sat down on the pavement behind her, intending to send his stand out if a good opportunity presented itself. 

"Guess it isn't a two on one after all." The Jack of clubs said with a chuckle, now addressing Susie. "I wondered when your human friend would be too weak to stand."

"He's just bored of your sorry ass!" Susie shot back. "And he's graciously letting me mop up."

"All right, then." The Jack of Clubs said with a smirk, changing Motorhead from a defensive posture to a clearly offensive one. "Tough crowd tonight. Guess I'll have to settle for you for the moment." 

Kris watched as Susie sent a wave of energy towards the Jack of Clubs, clearly intent on not letting him get his stand close to her. 

To Kris' dismay, however, Motorhead simply delivered the wave a swift punch, a move that dispersed the attack before it could reach it's target. He made a mental note that those energy waves apparently couldn't pass through stands like they passed through solid matter.

With Susie's attack out of the way, Motorhead charged forward towards her with near blinding speed. As it got within range, it threw a punch aimed directly at her head. 

The blow was only stopped when Susie managed to intercept it with Red Buster's own fist. The force of Motorhead's attack made crack shaped wounds appear in Susie's hand, fresh dust slowly leaking from them. 

Despite that, the force wasn't enough to move Susie from where she stood, a fact which seemed to surprise the Jack of Clubs for a moment. That didn't last long, however, as he soon launched Motorhead into a flurry of attacks, punching at Susie's shoulders and chest as fast as his stand could manage. 

To her credit, Susie managed to block all Motorhead's attacks, preventing them from inflicting even worse damage than they already were. Still, it was hard to deny the fact that she was getting the worst of the encounter. Every attack she blocked caused more and more wounds to appear on her arms, and at the rate things were going she was likely to soon be in the same kind of shape that Kris himself was.

Kris attempted to take advantage of the fact that the Jack of Clubs was distracted by moving his stand in a position to launch more debris at Motorhead's user. 

He was able to get the attack off before the Jack of Clubs could turn his attention away from Susie. He was still able to send the chunks of debris his stand kicked up flying at a respectable velocity despite his weakness, but it was not enough for them to reach the Jack of Clubs before Motorhead retreated from its attack on Susie to deflect them.

"I told you that wouldn't work again!" The Jack of Clubs mocked as he sent the debris flying back to Kris, who was able to block it with his own stand. 

Now that Motorhead was no longer right in Susie's face, Red Buster moved closer to the Jack of Clubs and took a wide swing in his direction with its axe. 

Strangely, the swing seemed sloppy and poorly aimed, missing the Jack of Clubs altogether and instead cutting into one of the gas pumps, sending gasoline leaking all over the concrete.

"Jeez, you're already in as bad shape as your friend, aren't you?" The Jack of Clubs asked with a grin. "Guess this is already over. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted."

It was at that moment that Kris heard the sound of Lancer's motorcycle approaching, much to his surprise. As soon as the sound of the engine was audible, Susie stepped back to Kris' side at the edge of the gas station. 

"Hey Kris, what's the score?" Susie asked him, a grin spreading across her face.

What score?" Kris asked in reply, confused by her sudden burst of apparent confidence despite their failure to damage their enemy. 

"I mean how many times you've saved my ass." She said, managing to stand up totally straight despite the copious amounts of dust flowing from her fresh wounds. "I still gotta pay you back for those, remember?" 

Kris turned to look at the Jack of Clubs, who had been drinking some of the gasoline released when Susie hit the pump, likely powering up a bit more to finish both of them off. "Susie...do you have a plan?" He asked, hoping the answer was yes, because he didn't.

"I don't have a plan, Kris." She responded, just as Lancer drove up next to her and handed a small, metal object that Kris couldn't quite discern the purpose of. 

"I've already won." She stated, as she had Red Buster take the metal object in its hand, revealing it to be a lighter.

Kris looked at the lighter for a few moments, and then looked down at the floor of the gas station. The pump Susie had broken has leaked gasoline just about everywhere, including right beneath the Jack of Clubs' feet.

"What makes you say that?" The Jack of clubs asked, clearly befuddled by Susie's statement and not having noticed the lighter yet.

"Look where you're standing, asshole." Susie replied with a snicker, tossing the now lit lighter down into the gasoline covering the gas station.

Kris debated telling Susie that her plan was going to make the gas station explode, but seeing as he didn't have a better plan, he just kept quiet. This was about to sting, and he might even pass out, but at least the Jack of clubs was going to die for sure.

Their enemy managed to let out one loud, drawn out "OH NO!" before the lighter hit the gas, despite Motorhead's attempt to grab it. Fortunately, Susie had simply dropped it a couple inches in front of her, leaving even Motorhead's speed unable to reach it in time. 

It only took seconds for the gasoline to go up in flames, and it took even less time for the fire to reach the pumps. Once that happened, the pumps exploded in a rather spectacular fireball, sending Kris, Susie, and Lancer flying backwards a couple meters, singed but amazingly alive.

They all laid there, stunned for a while before Susie barked at Lancer to get them out of there. Her demand barely registered in Kris' mind, as he was only barely clinging to the waking world.

Lancer got to his feet and called his stand out rather quickly, though not without a groan and some grumbling. It took Susie a bit longer to rise from the concrete on account of her extensive injuries, while Kris found himself unable to get up on his own. Fortunately, Susie had the strength to hoist him to his feet, helping him get on Lancer's bike before climbing onto it herself, sitting behind Kris to ensure he wouldn't fall off. Even in his barely functioning state, Kris noted that Lancer's motorcycle was bigger than it usually was. He hadn't realized Lancer could control the size of the motorcycle as well, but was grateful all the same.

"So...I kind of didn't realize it would blow up the whole place." she mumbled to Kris as the three of them drove away from the burning wreck of the gas station. "I just wanted to use the gas on the floor to roast the bastard."

"It's all right, Susie." Kris replied, barely audible. "We won, even if it might not feel like it right now. Just get us to Asriel's place, will you? He should be able to patch us both up. I'd want to get Ralesi, but I can't let my mom see me like this."

"Just save your strength, Kris." Susie replied, gently rubbing his head with one hand. "I figured you'd wanna go there, so I already told Lancer to drive us to your friend's place."

Kris took her advice, and simply remained silent for the remainder of their drive, privately pondering how in the world having a stand made anyone able to take as much punishment as he and Susie had received that night. 

To Kris' surprise, Asriel was still awake by the time they got to his place, and very promptly answered the door when he heard Susie ring the bell.

"Rough night, huh?" He remarked upon seeing this state of the two of them, receiving only an annoyed grumble from Susie in return. Though despite his levity, he wasted no time in assisting Susie with the task of helping Kris over to the couch. Lancer joined them indoors as well, apparently having little better to do than stay with them for the time being.

From there, it took him surprisingly little time to heal Kris and Susie's wounds. Kris could tell it was healing magic, but his mom had led him to believe that magic like that was very limited in it's capability. Yet now, Asriel was able to use it to make Kris' wounds clot and close up within seconds. 

"How are you doing that?" Kris asked weakly while Asriel was finishing up with Susie's wounds. He was feeling a lot better now that he wasn't bleeding, but he still felt rather dizzy and weak from the strain of the fight he had just been through. 

Asriel merely shrugged in response. "I've just always had a talent for magic. Can't really explain it myself. It's honestly not that impressive compared to what you two are capable of."

"I wouldn't say that." Kris groaned as he sat up straight. "If you couldn't do this, I don't know how I'd explain those wounds to my dad."

"Speaking of your dad, you better get back home fast, Kris." Susie said. "I'd wager that Undyne and her new friend will be all over the mess we left behind before long, and if we're not both home soon we might end up as suspects."

"What did you two do, exactly?" Asriel asked, having just finished healing Susie up as well. 

"Susie blew up a gas station." Kris answered. "In her defence, she kind of had to. You know how stand fights get."

"Yeah, I guess sometimes you just need to blow up a gas station." Asriel said with an amused smile. "But Susie's right, you two better get home as soon as you can. By the way, who did you mean when you said Undyne had a 'new friend'?"

"I dunno." Susie told him. "They're a human though, and I'm pretty certain they're a stand user too. Whoever they are, they're helping Undyne investigate something stand related."

"That's a bother." Asriel said with a shake of his head. "Tell you what, I'll see what I can find out about them for you. Something about what you said doesn't quite sit well with me. Speaking of new friends. Who is he?" He asked, pointing to Lancer.

"That's Lancer, the king's son." Kris answered with a glance toward the tired looking darkener. "He's a friend."

"Good. You need all of those that you can get." Asriel said as he stood up and walked over to a nearby closet, retrieving a leather jacket from it. "I'm gonna head out and get on that detective work, and maybe get a snack or something. You guys head on home."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Kris sighed as he rose from the couch. All four of them exited Asriel's house, with Kris and Susie climbing onto Lancer's stand for the ride home, while Asriel walked off into the night.

 

Lancer's motorcycle took almost no time to reach Kris' dad's place, and Kris soon found himself bidding Susie farewell for the night. They'd have plenty of time to talk about their victory in the morning, but for now they both desperately needed sleep. Kris just hoped that she managed to get home saftely.

As he entered his dad's house and made his way to his own bedroom, he was surprised to see Asgore sleeping on the couch. He was even more surprised to see Undyne sleeping next to him, as he hand't taken Undyne to be the type of person to pass out watching a movie with someone, let alone his dad.

With a shrug, and a mental note to ask his dad about it in the morning, he went through the kitchen for a snack on his way to bed. As he did, he noticed that Asgore's old landline a light on, which Kris knew signaled that he had a new message. 

Even in his tired state, he was curious. He had never need or heard anybody call this particular phone in all the time he had spent at his dad's place. Figuring that it couldn't hurt to listen, he played back the message.

"Hey Asgore." Said a voice that Kris was sure he had never heard before, and yet one that he felt was familiar somehow.

"You were right about just waiting for something to happen. I've got us a lead. If my hunch is right, I've found the person that Undyne and I ran into at the school that one night. Bring Undyne with you and meet me tomorrow morning."

The voice the proceeded to rattle off an address that Kris figured must be Susie's. He had never been over to Susie's house, as she had never offered, nor did she seem eager to have him over there. Now it looked like he'd need to make an appearance there the next morning, as he wasn't about to let Susie get questioned alone. 

The final thing he did before heading off to sleep was to delete the message. The person on the phone had to have been the one Susie mentioned as "Undyne's new friend" earlier, and if Kris was going to meet them for the first time, he'd rather Undyne and his dad not be there.

It was with a feeling of restleseness that he finally went to bed, barely able to get to sleep with the next day's plans hanging over his head.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

The Jack of Spades finally stirred after a few hours of unconsciousness. As soon as he opened his eyes, he realized that he was definitely no longer on the streets where he had fought that lightener brat.

He was lying on a carpeted floor in a dark room, the only light being the scant light of the moon that shined through an open window. A large, comfortable looking chair sat in the center of the room, right in front of where he had woken up. 

Curiously, his wounds had been patched up and the dust had been cleaned off his body. As he looked around the room, a large and imposing suit of armor caught his eye. It was positioned right next to a doorway, with the helmet oriented right towards him. 

He rose to his feet and approached the door, deciding that it wouldn't do to just try and charge out of the building without knowing what was going on. 

As he stepped towards the door, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the suit of armor move. He hastily took a step back and called out his stand, prepared to fight if he was being held hostage or something similar.

"About time you woke up." The armor said with a deep, booming voice. "It was a pain moving your sorry ass all the way here,"

"And where am I, exactly?" He asked, still not certain if he should trust whoever this was.

"Explaining that isn't my job. Wait here and I'll go get the head jackass himself."

He had never heard somebody speak of their leader -if that was indeed who she was speaking of- with such disrespect. This person was either very powerful or working for somebody far less competent than they were. 

"And who exactly might that be?" He asked, determined to get at least one answer out of the mystery man.

"I think you know him as 'He who longs for Heaven.'" The armored figure replied, sending a chill down the Jack of Spades' spine. "Bit of a clumsy name, so I just call him idiot, asshole, or punk depending on my mood."

The Jack of Spades felt a lump in his throat at these words. This person must be incredibly strong if they could speak of "He who longs for Heaven" in such a way. In the dark world, all the Knight's servants feared that person, for they possessed a stand capable of defeating even the Knight.

The armored stranger left the room, leaving the stunned Jack of Spades to stew for a little while. For whatever reason, the Knight's prime rival had requested his presence. The timing was certainly no mistake either, as the Knight was likely to punish him if he returned to the dark world in failure.

It wasn't too long before he heard the sound of two voices approaching from the other side of the door. 

"You've got a lot of nerve healing him and then pissing off and making me come get you when he wakes up, you know that?" Said the voice of the armored figure. "I would be less angry if you hadn't been taking a fucking nap of all things!"

"Undyne, please." Came a voice that sounded considerably more relaxed, and yet oozed with confidence. "I had to spend a little more time with the fourth one, let her know that I was going to be indisposed for the rest of the night and give her a few warnings. Important stuff, you know?"

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just finish up in here so I can get to sleep before I put a boot up your ass." The armored voice said. 

"Don't threaten me with a good time" The other voice replied with a jovial laugh, the comment getting him an angry growl from the other figure. "And take off that helmet. You'll scare our guest."

With that, the door opened, and the armored figure, along with "He who longs for Heaven" entered. The Jack of spades could now see the face of the armored figure now that their helmet was removed. The first thing they noticed was the sharp looking fangs that were prominent when their mouth was even slightly open. Their ears reminded the Jack of Spades of some aquatic creature, and their red hair was long despite being tied in a ponytail. The final major feature he took notice of was the eyepatch over their left eye, giving them the appearance of a seasoned warrior.

 

"Well well, if it isn't the King's cousin." The other person hummed to himself as he stepped around the Jack of spades and sat down in the large, comfortable chair. "Rough night, I take it?"

The Jack of Spades wasted no time in rushing to the front of the chair and kneeling down in front of it, thinking it important to pay the utmost respect and homage to this powerful man who made even the Knight fear him.

"My lord, please have mercy on your most humble servant-" He began to grovel as was proper when in the presence of such a being, but was quickly cut off. 

"No, no no." Sighed the man in the chair. "Get up off your knees, will you? We're all friends here, even Undyne. Though I do like the sound of 'lord.' Maybe I should make you call me that more, Undyne. After all, I am a prince."

The armored figure, who the Jack of Spades now figured was called Undyne, simply growled at him in response, an angry look on their face.

"But no, 'lord' is a bit inappropriate considering the only thing I rule is Undyne." The man in the chair continued. "So, from now on, my name is 'the Boss,' got it?"

"Yes, boss." The Jack of Spades replied obediently, now feeling more relaxed. "I assume you need something from me. Given my current situation, I would be most glad to provide it. Anything at all you need!"

"Good." The Boss said with an oddly warm and friendly smile. "Then it's settled. You work for me now. No more need to worry about the Knight. My first orders are for you to accompany Undyne out of town tomorrow. You two will be making preparations for when I'm done in this town, which shouldn't be too much longer. Kris and Susie are doing awfully well."

"Of course, boss. I won't disappoint you!" He replied eagerly. Anything that got him farther from the Knight was welcome at this point, even if Undyne scared him a bit.

"Good man." The boss replied as he rose from his seat. "In the meantime, find a guest room and get some sleep. You have a big day tomorrow."

With that, the Boss rose from his seat and left the room, followed by Undyne, leaving the Jack of Spades to breathe a sigh of relief and follow after them, looking forward to some proper rest. Whatever happened after this, he felt blessed that the boss had chosen him of all people.

<\-- To be continued


	26. The Invisible Man, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Belated halloween chapter, exams were kicking my ass so I didn't get it done at the appropriate date.

Noelle took a look up from her map to survey the surrounding desert. She had been traveling for weeks now, which corresponded to a few hours in the waking world. 

Ever since Asriel had shown her the dreamworld, she had been finding excuses to go to sleep earlier and earlier. Her stand power meant that she had no trouble falling asleep, and even less trouble lucid dreaming. 

Sure her social life had suffered a bit as a result, but most of the time she was now spending in the dream world had just been spent studying with Berdly before. Besides, in the dream world she could study 10 times as fast as anyone else thanks to the time difference. These days she was going to bed one night and getting an entire week's worth of homework answers etched into her brain before she woke up. After that it was easy to go and copy them down on paper, since her stand let her remember all of her dreams too.

Asriel had, of course, left her with many warnings when he had told her she was ready to explore the dreamlands on her own. The first was not to go underground under any circumstances. That was easy enough, as she had been taught that places like those were where bad dreams usually happened. The second was that she should not go far north to the land of Leng, where the passage to unknown Kadath was said to be. 

She wasn't exactly sure what Kadath was, but all she had heard about it indicated that it was a lost city built by some race of old, powerful beings. 

The thought of such a place intrigued her to no end, and eventually she had worked up the courage to strike out to the north, against Asriel's warning. 

After all, she reasoned, she could simply wake up at any time should something look to be going wrong. This was her big chance to have an adventure without actually risking any bodily harm, and she thought she'd be a fool not to take it. 

Looking up from her map, which told her she was still hundreds of miles from the west side of a huge mountain range that led into Leng, she took a look around the sparse, barren desert she was travelling through. 

Despite the seemingly never ending stretch of sands, the whether was getting progressively colder as she went further north. Without her unique abilities, she would have frozen to death during the nights and caught a chill during the days. Thankfully, her dream powers made it so she had no problem ignoring the wind and temperature, as well as her need for water and food. 

Now, however, something odd was happening. An unnatural fog seemed to be rolling in over the sands, making Noelle unable to see as far into the distance as she was used to. 

Normally, fog in a desert with no preceding rain would be odd. However, this was the dream world, and so Noelle was easily able to shrug it off as some natural oddity and continue her trek across the sandy plains. 

Soon, however, she came across a sight that surprised her. The fog abruptly gave way to the sight of city buildings. Not the medieval looking ones she had seen in places like Celephais or Ulthar either. These were tall, modern looking concrete buildings that reminded Noelle of descriptions of the big cities in her own world.

Noelle looked at the city in awe, for it certainly did look like a city, as it now seemed to stretch in all directions in front of her. Some of the towering buildings had large, flashing neon signs advertising their functions. From where she stood, Noelle could make out a huge hotel that must have been at least a dozen stories, and a gigantic casino that dominated the skyline. 

Still, one thing seemed to be missing from what otherwise looked like a bustling city landscape. Noelle quickly noticed that there seemed to be no people about, nor any sound of hustle and bustle, and not even the sound of a car horn broke the suddenly eerie seeming silence over the fog shrouded town. 

Still, this place was in her path of travel, and it's not like anything would stop her from waking up if she got in any trouble. In the real world, she would have turned right around and walked away, but here in the dream world, her reality bending powers instilled a confidence in her that she could never have imagined otherwise. 

She was still going back forth on the subject of entering the city when she idly used her stand's secondary ability: detecting the locations of nearby dreamers. To her surprise, she sensed that Susie, Kris, and Kris' father were all somehow in that city. The odds of three different people being in the same area of the dreamlands by pure chance was incredibly low considering that none of them were likely lucid. Something was likely going on here, and she might be the only one who could get to the bottom of it.

Whether there was actual danger or not, she could hardly just leave Kris, Susie, and Asgore here without at least checking on them first. She was a part of Kris' team after all, at least in theory. With these thoughts in mind, she was finally able to muster the courage to walk cautiously into the silent, foggy city, heading straight towards Kris' location.

As she walked through the fog shrouded streets of the strange city, she began to feel as if she was not alone. She couldn't decide exactly where she was being watched from, but she was certain that there was a pair of eyes staring at her from some shady back alley or darkened window. 

She was about to turn back around and just bolt, or even simply use her powers to make a portal out of there as she had done so often lately as a means of fast travel, when she suddenly caught sight of a figure through the fog.

It seemed to be wearing a policeman's uniform, which put Noelle somewhat at ease, though something still felt off. Why was this person the only one out on the foggy streets with no patrol car in sight?

"Hi there, little girl." The figure suddenly spoke, making Noelle jump. The voice was hoarse and gravelly, and carried a distinctly mocking, sarcastic tone to it.

At this point, Noelle panicked. But instead of running away, she simply did as she had planned to do if something was going wrong, and willed herself to wake up.

To her utter horror, she found that she couldn't. It wasn't as if it was a particularly difficult thing to do either, she had woken up at will plenty of times before. Yet now, it simply wasn't happening. 

Panic welled up in her, but not the helpful kind that made her run, this was the sort that made her body simply freeze into place, unable to move, speak, or do anything else of the sort.

"Aww, so scared already?" The figure asked, still holding his mocking tone. "Didn't your mommy ever tell you that you shouldn't be afraid of the police, little girl? After all, we're here to protect and serve."

Noelle could barely breath now. Something was definitely wrong here, and the man in the police uniform was not helping matters. In fact, she was almost sure that he was why she couldn't wake up. Despite the fact that she couldn't see his face, she knew there was something very wrong about him. 

"Ummm...I...I'm just lost, that's all!" She squeaked out. Pretending that she was an ordinary dreamer seemed like the right way to go to her. Maybe he'd just lose interest and leave her alone if he didn't suspect she had any powers.

It wasn't the best logic, but it was all her panicked mind could come up with. She was now reasoning that she had stepped into one of those regions where nightmares were made, and that this figure in front of her was one of those who was responsible for giving his unfortunate visitors bad dreams of varying intensities. 

They weren't always evil beings, or so Asriel had told her, but simply necessary to uphold the natural order. She got a bad feeling about this being, however. A malevolent aura hung in the air, sending chills down her spine in addition to the trembling she was already feeling.

"My, my, my." The figure said with an unnerving chuckle. "You're a scared one, aren't you? You scare easy...and you scare reeeal good too. I could have so much fun with you, little girl..."

That was bad. Very bad. Evidently the stranger was finding things out about her without any confirmation of her own. She really should have run at this point, but she found herself still too scared to move.

"I was just supposed to get rid of the Dreemurs." The man continued. "But you're quite the feast of fear all on your own. With you to fuel me, I could defeat even the Knight..." 

The man was almost talking to himself now, thought he had started to take some agonizingly slow steps towards Noelle. 

"F-fuel?" Noelle whimpered. She didn't like the sound of that at all, and the fact that he was here to kill Kris meant that he was definitely not one of the dream makers that Asriel had mentioned.

"Yeeeeesss..." The man hissed, taking another slow step forwards. "My stand, 'The Invisible man' has the unique trait of making me stronger the more scared my prey is, and you're oh so wonderfully scared..."

It was only now that Noelle finally found the strength to move. Taking a step back from the man, she tried to use her dream powers to do something like blow him away with a strong wind. Yet, to her own despair and horror, nothing happened.

The man must have caught on to what she was trying to do, because he gave out a loud, malignant laugh. 

"I knew you were a lucid dreamer the moment you stepped into this town, little girl." The man said as he continued his slow walk, his features still concealed through the fog. "Fortunately for me, 'The Invisible Man' gives me the ability to suppress dream powers, but not stands. Shame that your own stand doesn't seem to be able to fight back."

As much as Noelle didn't want to admit it, the man was right. She had never been able to make her stand interact with anything directly, though she desperately wished she had practiced that now. 

Suddenly, the figure's head shot forward towards Noelle through the fog, as if his neck was elastic. His face stopped mere inches from her own, allowing her to finally see his features.

She wished she hadn't. His features were vaguely human, but everything was wrong in some way. His eyes were at different heights, and located on opposite cheeks. His mouth, meanwhile, was a vertical opening rather than the normal horizontal, and was filled with rough, jagged, grimy looking teeth. Perhaps the worst part of it was how disfigured his "flesh" looked. His face was either burned, scarred, cut, or rotting in any given spot, and the brief glimpse Noelle got at his neck indicated that this was the state of the rest of his body as well.

The sudden extension of the man's neck was accompanied by a loud "BOO!", which had the effect of finally startling Noelle into action. 

The burst of adrenaline made her snap out of her fear induced paralysis and run, something she knew she really should have done earlier. Unfortunately, the direction she was running was not the same way she came, meaning that she wasn't getting any closer to being out of that city.

Still, she was at least getting away from horrible, disfigured man, who thankfully didn't seem to be running after her. In fact, after a few minutes of sprinting at full speed, Noelle was certain that she had lost him. 

Sure she was safe for the time, Noelle stopped running and used her stand to get a bead on where Kris was. Since she no longer knew which direction would lead her out of the city, finding Kris was her best bet at this point. He always had a plan, so he'd definitely be able to get them out of this one.

As she began to cautiously move in the direction her stand was saying Kris was, she noticed something odd about the wall of the alley she had darted into to try and avoid being spotted by the disfigured man again. 

It looked as if there was some kind of bump in the wall, and it seemed like it was even in the shape of...a person?

Just as her brain finished that thought, the bump stretched outwards, an act which was accompanied by a rubbery stretching sound. It took her a few moments to realize that this wasn't the wall extending, but rather a person walking out of the wall. 

The terrifying figure of the man from earlier slowly took shape as he emerged from the wall, still wearing that police uniform. This time, however, Noelle noticed to her horror that he was dragging an enormous, over-sized butcher's knife behind him, creating the sound of metal scraping against rock with every step.

"You can't hide from me, little girl." The man growled. "This town is all of my own making, and your fear is too strong to hide from me. I'm gonna protect and serve you...for dinner!"

With that, he swung the huge knife right at her, aiming expertly for her neck. Luckily, the speed that only utter terror could grant spurred her to start running before the blade could sever her head from her body. 

She was screaming her head off as she ran away from the man with the cleaver, though somehow not gaining any distance despite the fact that her pursuer was simply walking towards her at what looked like a slow pace. 

Thankfully, she knew was just about to reach Kris. Not a moment too soon either, as the disfigured man was about to get within knife distance of her again. 

Turning around one final street corner, she finally saw Kris. The human was wandering through the streets with a blank look on his face, the same kind Noelle usually saw on people who were in a dream state where nothing was happening. 

Quickly bringing out her stand, she had it touch one bony hand to Kris' head. Instantly, she saw him snap to attention, coming into a lucid dream state.

"Noelle? What's going-" He stopped mid sentence as he took a look at the disfigured man chasing Noelle, who stopped his chase as soon as he noticed Kris becoming aware.

"Oh. That's what." He said with an annoyed groan. 

"Kris! Get your stand out and do something about him, will you?" Noelle shouted at him, running to his side as fast as she could manage. 

"Uh, yeah. Little problem with that, Noelle." The human mumbled. "I can't call out my stand."

The figure with the knife let out a loud, long laugh that sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Noelle. She was not at all heartened by the fact that Kris wasn't able to bring his stand out, as she had kind of been counting on that to keep her alive.

"Silly girl." The man finally said. " You forgot that if he didn't have his stand out when he fell asleep, he can't bring it into the dreamworld. And really, who keeps their stand out while they go to sleep?"

"You going to give me the courtesy of knowing who you are before you start using that knife?" Kris asked the man, slightly reassuring Noelle with his calm tone.

"But of course." The man said with a grin. "I'm the Ace of Diamonds. The Knight's top assassin. But you can call me Bob. That was my name before I died."

"You don't look very dead." Kris said matter-of-factly. He was honestly just hoping to keep this guy talking long enough to come up with a proper plan at this point. He didn't honestly care about Bob's origin story.

"I'll keep it brief, since I REALLY want to just kill you and get back to the tasty piece of venison hiding behind you. I was born the lowest of the low in darkener society, and eventually I pissed off one of the big important nobles. Needless to say, my fate wasn't pleasant. But I wasn't about to go quietly into the night. My stand was one of the rare kind that only activates upon death. 'The Invisible Man' prevented death from taking me, and made the dream world MY domain."

"Why are you working for the Knight, then?" Kris asked, legitimately curious about that particular question.

 

"Well, I did try to kill the King of Spades in his sleep." The Ace of Diamonds grumbled. "Turns out that the Knight goes into the dreamworld when his user does, on account of him always being active. But I think this is enough talking. You know who I am, and now it's time to die."

Noelle couldn't handle it anymore, she had to try something. Calling her stand out, she sent it rushing toward the Ace of Diamonds, a fist aimed directly for his disfigured face.

Her spirits initially soared as it looked like the Ace of Diamonds wasn't going to be able to dodge it in time, only to drop when her stand's fist went right through the man without doing any damage.

"My stand is the gift that keeps on giving, little girl!" The Ace of Diamonds laughed. "I told you fear made me stronger, but there's one other thing it does. People who are scared of me can't hurt me, and you're very, very scared of me."

His laughing was interrupted by Kris' fist abruptly hitting him square in the chin. The force of the blow was surprisingly strong, and sent the man down on the pavement, flat on his back. 

Noelle couldn't help but let out a little cheer. Evidently the man hadn't expected Kris to be able to hit him in the first place, as he hadn't even bothered to try and avoid the blow.

Kris took a cautios step back, apparently not confident enough try and land more hits. Noelle could tell from the look on his face that the attack had been one of pure impulse, rather than a pre-calculated matter.

"What's the plan, Kris?" She asked in a hushed whisper, looking nervously at the Ace of Diamonds, who was slowly getting while rubbing his jaw.

"I may not be able to use my stand, Noelle, but I can use my legs." Kris replied, his tone giving her hope that just maybe he had a plan of some kind. 

"What are you going to do with your legs, Kris?" She asked eagerly, barely able to contain how anxious she was to hear his no doubt masterful plan. 

Her heart sunk when Kris abruptly turned around and began sprinting away from the Ace of Diamonds at his max speed. 

"We're going to get out of here, Noelle!" He called back to her as she began running after him. 

"Oh, come on, Kris! Don't tell me you don't have a plan!" 

The maligant laugh of the Ace of Diamonds could be heard echoing through the whole town as Kris and Noelle ran out of his sight, not stopping even when they had taken a multitude of twists and turns.

"Kris, where are we running?" Noelle asked breathlessly. She had put all her eggs in this one basket, and if Kris couldn't figure something out, they'd both be in a lot of trouble. 

"I don't know, Noelle." He answered. finally stopping to catch his own breath. "For once in my life, I don't know."

 

<\-- To be continued.


	27. The Invisible Man, part 2

"Noelle. Give me a quick rundown." Kris panted, having just stopped running to catch his breath. As much as he could hit the Ace of Diamonds, he wasn't about to gamble his life on catching him off guard again like that. 

"Well..we...we're asleep." Noelle panted, her body visibly trembling. "Just like when you first had to deal with my stand. The difference this time is that the one in control of the dream is...that THING we just got away from."

Nothing about this was sounding good, but things rarely did these days unless they involved Susie. He briefly wondered why he was panting for breath in a dream world, but chalked it up to some strange effect of the enemy stand.

"Is it just you and me in here, then?" Kris asked. If there was nobody else to worry about he could just tell Noelle to get out of here while he tried to deal with the Ace of Diamonds. Otherwise, he'd need to get them awake before he made the last stand that he was planning out in his head.

Noelle scratched the back of her neck anxiously, as if preparing to deliver bad news. "W-well...Susie's in here, and so is your dad. My stand's telling me that Susie's in the casino, while your dad's considerably farther away."

Kris cursed internally. He could understand why Susie was here, but why would one of the Knight's people bring his dad into this place too? He had been extra sure not to let his dad know about anything going on with the dark world, so there was no reason that the Knight should consider him a threat yet.

"All right." He sighed. "Lead on to the casino, then. We've got to get Susie asap."

Noelle gave him a nod in reply, starting back into a brisk jog. "There's no point trying to hide, Kris. I think he can find where we are without seeing us. We should probably expect him to catch up real soon, in fact."

"If he shows up, you just go get Susie and let me handle him, got it?" Kris asked, easily keeping pace with her in his own haste to find Susie.

Noelle simply gave him a nervous, shaky nod in return, apparently not wanting to use breath unnecessarily as the two of them ran through the foggy streets. 

Amazingly, they reached the towering casino while encountering nobody. The only sounds that broke the eerie silence the whole way were their own rapid footfalls, as not even the sound of a stiff breeze provided a much desired relief to the total stillness.

They thankfully found the doors to the enormous structure unlocked, and were able to enter the casino's huge, ornate lobby without any resistance. 

A huge red carpet was stretched down the middle of the room, leading up to a grand looking staircase. Multitudes of marble statues of various monsters and humans lined the sides of the carpet, their heads all fixed towards the doors. 

Kris and Noelle, of course, took little notice of the extravagant surroundings. Instead, their only focus was on Susie, who was slowly ascending the stairs.

The two of them reached her within moments, though she took no notice of them in her tranced dream state. At least, not until Noelle made her lucid. 

"Kris, noelle? Where are we?" She groaned as she adjusted to her sudden lucidity, taking quick glances around the room to try and get her bearings. 

"I don't think I have a lot of time to explain." Kris began. Despite how odd the situation was, he was going to have to try and sum it up quickly. "I'll make it quick. We're all asleep, I can't use my stand, and we've got one of the Knight's men after us."

"Asleep? Like that one time with Noelle's stand?" Susie asked, suddenly seeming a lot more focused after Kris' mention of one of the Knight's people.

"The full answer takes too long." Noelle replied. "So let's just go with 'yes' for now. I don't suppose you can bring out your stand, by any chance?"

Susie paused for a moment before shaking her head, clearly annoyed. "No luck. Just like the last time. I really need to have it out when I fall asleep."

Kris had expected as much. Not that he wouldn't have liked Susie to have been able to bring out her stand, but it had seemed like an unlikely possibility to begin with. 

"No worries." Kris stated, as calmly as he could. "I've got a plan."

He noticed that the assertion seemed to calm Noelle down a bit, as the trembling in her hands had calmed somewhat. 

"About time." Noelle said with a sigh of relief. "Hurry up and tell us before that guy from earlier catches back up!"

"Susie, this is going to sound weird, but I'm going to need you to go with Noelle and leave me here." Kris started, hoping that Susie would do as he said without too many questions. "My dad's somewhere in this dream town too, and the two of you need to wake him up and then get out of town. Noelle can track people in the dream world, so you shouldn't have any problem finding him. I can fight our enemy even without my stand, so I'll distract him for a while and then catch back up with you."

As Kris had expected, Susie looked displeased with the idea. "I don't like the idea of running away, Kris, especially not when it involves leaving you alone."

"Susie, it's just a guy with a knife. I can handle myself." He assured her, though he was almost certain that the Ace of Diamonds was just toying with them for the moment. 

To Kris' relief, Susie seemed to accept that he could handle it. 

"All right, freak. But you better catch up with us soon, all right? I'm not waking up without you."

He hated to give her hope that he wasn't even sure of himself, but he couldn't afford to spend time arguing with her. 

"Noelle should be able to tell you when I'm out of town. If my suspicions are right, we'll be able to wake up once we leave the area."

At that moment, one of the statues lining the side of the carpet begin to crack, a wicked laughter coming from it as chunks of marble broke off to reveal the now raincoat and fedora clad Ace of Diamonds inside. 

"Guess that's our queue to go, Noelle!" Susie called as she began sprinting towards the exit to the casino, prompting Noelle to follow after her as quick as the doe's legs allowed. 

Just as they got out the door, the statue finished breaking, allowing the Ace of Diamonds to step off of the pedestal where it had stood. Kris was mildly pleased when the disfigured man turned that misshapen head of his towards him first instead of towards the rapidly escaping Susie and Noelle.

"There you are, boy." The darkener snarled. "Shame that the lovely little lump of venison had the ability to make you lucid. I could have had a lot more fun with her otherwise. But now my fun's over, and I had better get down to business."

"One question first." Kris said, taking a few steps backwards up the stairs in order to gain the high ground. "Why my dad? Last I checked, the Knight really only wanted me dead."

At this, that wretched, vertical grin that graced the Ace of Diamonds' features only got wider. "Did you think that the Knight is the only person I do...jobs for? The person who wants your dad dead is an old friend of your family. Shame you'll never get to meet him. I just figured I'd kill two birds with one stone by killing father and son in the same night."

Kris debated asking who this friend of the family was, but quickly decided that the time for talking was over when the ace of Diamonds began to walk towards him, his yellowed, grimy fingernails extending to the length of small knives as he did so.

Once the Ace of Diamonds had reached the base of the stairs, Kris decided it was time to move. He ran at the disfigured darkener, intending to land another solid blow to the head, but was still acutely aware of those now razor sharp fingernails. 

The Ace of Diamonds struck first, swinging his now claw-like nails at Kris' face in an attempt to hit his eyes. Kris stopped his advance and caught his enemy's hand by the wrist using both of his own hands, which proved necessary as he felt immense strength behind the Ace of Diamonds' attack. This saved him from having his face clawed open, but made him vulnerable to his enemy's other hand, which came slicing towards his chest.

To his own surprise, the razor sharp nails merely passed harmlessly through his chest instead of harming him. This odd occurrence made both Kris and the Ace of Diamonds draw back, making a gap of a couple meters between them. Though Kris quickly realized he should have capitalized on the moment of confusion, he wasn't even sure what to make of it himself.

"Huh, would you look at that." Kris finally said with a smile after a few moments of him and his enemy exchanging stunned glances. "Guess you can't hurt me if I'm not afraid of you. Unless there's something else going on that I'm unaware of."

The Ace of diamonds merely snarled in response, clearly perturbed by the sudden turn of events. In return, Kris decided that this was definitely the right time to attack, and charged at the wretched darkener again, intent on capitalizing on his sudden advantage.

This would not prove to be as easy as he had hoped; however, as the Ace of Diamonds quickly faded into thin air before Kris could land his first punch. 

"You may not be afraid of me, human, but I still have power here." The Ace of Diamond snarled, his voice seeming to come from every corner of the room. "I may have been a peasant in life, but I am king of this world!"

Ignoring his opponent's taunts, Kris decided to take advantage of his invulnerability in the only way he could; by walking away. However, once he reached the doors of the casino, he found them to be locked tight. No amount of shoving or bashing he could deliver seemed to budge them either, giving him the impression that he was stuck in the building.

"You are perhaps the most admirable prey I've had the pleasure of pursuing, though you're certainly not the most entertaining." He heard the Ace of Diamonds say, the darkener's voice having regained some of its previous malicious joviality. "But I've got all the time in the world to break you."

"Kind of difficult when you can't hurt me." Kris commented, looking around the room to see if he could figure out where his enemy was now.

"Oh, you misunderstand." The Ace of Diamonds laughed. "You're not lucid EVERY night, and despite what you were likely thinking, none of you will remember what happened in the dream world after you wake up. It'll be a lot easier to off you all once you're not lucid, though I think I'll still indulge myself in a bit of fun tonight. After all, the Knight won't be pleased if I delay too long in killing you."

Kris still wasn't sure how exactly the darkener planned to kill him without touching him, but he didn't intend on sticking around to find out. With no other way to go but up, he headed for the stairs with a near certainty that he was being followed despite being unable to see the Ace of Diamonds.

He wasn't sure when, but at some point when his back was turned to them the stairs had turned from a normal if somewhat lavish hotel staircase into a steep, winding spiral. 

"You know, I think I've changed my mind." The Ace of Diamonds' voice said, still seemingly coming from nowhere in particular. "I think I might just have to save you for last. That way you can watch every night while I have my fun with my dear new deer. Of course, that will have to be after I treat you to the demise of barney the dinosaur's inbred cousin."

Attempting to ignore the taunts, though slightly perturbed at the fact that the Ace of Diamonds likely was very capable of doing everything he was threatening, Kris continued to advance up the stairs, finally coming to a landing that opened up into a hallway lined with hotel room doors.

"Or...I could be merciful and kill your friends quickly." The Ace of Diamonds said, a cruel and mischievous tone coming over his previously angry voice. "All of them, not just the deer, your father. and the dragon girl. Then I can have the pleasure of letting you stew in the new reality of your waking world: one where you're totally alone."

It was at that moment that Kris made a mistake. He actually thought, for just a brief moment, about that particular torment. A world where he was totally alone like that actually did terrify him, and if he, Susie, and Noelle wouldn't remember anything from the dreamworld like the Ace of Diamonds said they would, there was nothing he could do to stop that from becoming a reality.

The prospect of dying hadn't scared him. The faith in the Angel instilled in him by his mother had made him believe in a fairly pleasant life after death. But the idea of having to be all alone in the world when he knew he had been incredibly lucky to have been adopted by the Dreemurs at all - not to mention the incredibly low chances of him ever meeting anyone like Susie again - that idea scared him, and at the moment he didn't know if he could do anything to stop that future from coming to pass.

Just a brief moment after all those thoughts flew through his head at a mile a minute, he suddenly felt a cold, clammy hand on his shoulder. 

"Gotcha." The Ace of Diamonds said proudly. "Everyone's scared of something, and not even the most stoic of would be heroes is an exception!"

Kris jerked himself away from the darkener's vile grip, swinging a punch back in his direction as he did so. To his dismay, the blow passed right through the darkener, just like Noelle's attacks had earlier. 

"Time to die now, boy." The Ace of diamonds snarled, his sharp fingernails retracting to a normal length as the huge butcher knife he had wielded earlier materialized in his hand. 

With no other alternative, Kris decided it was time to resort to his "run away" plan again. He took off down the hall, ducking into one of the thankfully unlocked side rooms as soon as he had a bit of distance between him and the knife wielding darkener. 

The room was unfortunately devoid of anything Kris could use as a weapon, only containing a disheveled bed, a rotting closet, and a decrepit bureau. The only thing that really caught his eye was the fire escape out the room's only window.

It wasn't long before the Ace of Diamonds reached the room, cleaving the door open with a single swing of his oversized knife. Luckily for Kris, he had already opened the window and was already out on the fire escape, noting with some confusion that the window hadn't been locked. 

"Nowhere to go but up, boy!" The Ace of Diamonds laughed upon entering the room, slowly making his way towards the window.

Kris took a quick look down and discovered that he was right. The fire escape only went up to the roof. At this point he was fairly certain that nothing good was on the roof, as his enemy clearly wanted him to go up there. However, the only alternative was a long fall which he was quite certain wouldn't wake him up like your average falling dream did. 

Deciding that he had no choice, Kris ascended the fire escape despite his own multitude of reservations. Unfortunately, he was so focused on looking behind him as he ran upwards that he was unprepared to avoid it when the Ace of Diamonds grabbed him by the throat, having gotten up to the roof before Kris.

"All it takes is a little crack to make all that stoicism crumble, eh?" The darkener laughed, hoisting Kris up off the ground.

All Kris' attempts to kick at his captor were rendered futile when they simply passed through him. It seemed that despite the darkener being able to grab him, Kris could not respond in kind. The contemplation of losing everyone he cared about, however brief, had made him somewhat afraid of his opponent despite the fact that he didn't show any visible signs of it, and that seemed to be enough for his stand to take effect.

"You know those dreams where you're falling, and wake up right before you hit the ground?" The Ace of Diamonds asked with a laugh, walking over to the side of the building and letting Kris hang over it. 

"This time, you're going to hit the bottom, but you won't wake up." The Ace of Diamonds said with a sneer. "Take some solace in the fact that you'll only be in a coma. No gruesome crime scene for your loved ones to see. Not that that will be much consolation."

It was at that moment, just as Kris was consoling himself with the thought that at the very least he had bought for Susie to escape, that he heard Susie's voice.

"Hey! Drop him, you asshat!" She shouted as she climbed up onto the top of the roof, with Noelle close behind her.

Why had they come back? Noelle should have known that she couldn't do anything, and he had explicitly told Susie to get Noelle and his dad out of there. 

"Your next line is going to be: 'Very poor choice of words, little girl.' isn't it?" Kris suddenly heard the familiar voice of his father ring out as he too climbed onto the roof.

"very poor choice of words, little g-w-what?" The Ace of Diamonds said, stopping in shock just as he realized that he was saying exactly what Asgore had predicted. 

"Ha! Still got it!" Asgore exclaimed with a quick pump of his fist, prompting an annoyed snarl from the Ace of Diamonds. 

"Bleh!" The darkener hissed. "Well, fancy trick or not, the point still stands. That was a VERY poor choice of words."

With that, Kris was dropped over the edge of the skyscraper...and fell about 3 feet before landing in a ludicrously tall tree.

"How did that get there?!" The Ace of Diamonds shouted angrily as he peered over the edge. 

That question was one that even Kris couldn't answer, as it definitely wasn't there when he was last looking down. 

"This isn't my first time around the block." Asgore spoke up proudly. "I ALWAYS sleep with my stand out! It doesn't matter much since I can't be lucid on demand, but thanks to Noelle's power it seems to be a useful habit after all."

"To think...to think that YOU would stop me after all!" The Ace of Diamonds hissed at Noelle, giving her a hate filled glare.

"Well, it honestly was your fault for putting that tree all the way down there in the first place." Asgore laughed. "Now then, 'Bergentrückung!'" Asgore called out his stand's name as a couple of the tree's branches shot forth from the tree, spontaneously growing to wrap around the Ace of Diamonds before extending to a place where Asgore could grab a hold of them.

The tree Kris was in grew another few feet, allowing him a view of the rooftop again. He was glad for it, as the sight that followed was one he wouldn't have missed for the world. 

As he expected, the Ace of Diamonds started to fade. No doubt trying to pull another vanishing act like he had in the building's lobby and when he caught Kris on the roof. Before he could pull that off, however, bright sparks of energy ran through the branches that bound him in place, emanating from Asgore's own hands. 

The attack made the Ace of Diamonds cry out in pain and fully rematerialize, stopping his attempt at escape. I took only a few moments for bright, glowing cracks to appear all over the darkener's body, the energy tearing him apart even as he thrashed and struggled against the tree branches in his attempt to escape. 

A few moments later, and after one final scream of pain from the Ace of Diamonds, there was nothing left where he had once stood. Kris wouldn't have believed that he was actually gone if the fog hadn't began to clear as well, with a bright sun illuminating the once dark city. 

"I leave you alone for a few minutes and look what happens." Susie said with a grin as Kris stepped off of the tree and onto the roof. "Your dad really is something else, freak. And to think you were worried he couldn't handle himself."

"Yeah, I...might have been wrong about that." Kris admitted as he approached his friends. "Thanks for the save, dad, but I guess I have a lot to explain, huh?" Under normal circumstances he would have been a little angry at Susie and Noelle for dragging his dad into this, but he hardly had any room to complain considering he had just been about to die.

"I don't blame you for keeping secrets, son." His father replied with a warm smile, pulling him into a hug that Kris was hardly going to object to. "In fact, I understand it more than you know. But we should discuss this after we wake up. This city hasn't vanished yet, and if I understand it correctly, it was that creature who created it. Thus, he may not be totally destroyed."

"T-that looked pretty dead to me..." Noelle murmured. "Do you r-really think he's still alive?"

"he was already dead, remember?" Kris reminded her as his father released him from the embrace, his words only serving to make her seem even more worried than she already was.

"This has been a fucking weird night." Susie grumbled. "I'm just ready to wake up already. think you can do that for us, Noelle?"

"Anytime you all are ready." Noelle assured them. "Now that that...thing is gone, I don't feel anchored here like I did before."

"Good." Said Asgore. "Then we should leave as soon as we can. Kris, we'll talk when we're both awake. I have...a lot to tell you, and I'm sure you have a lot to tell me. Though things make a lot more sense now that I know that Susie and Noelle are stand users too, and that you've got yourself some enemies."

"I promise I'll tell you everything when we wake, dad." Kris promised, deciding that there was clearly no more point trying to avoid dragging his dad into this. It would just be insulting to refuse to explain things at this point. 

"Then I'll see you in the morning, son." Asgore said, patting him on the back as he gave Noelle a slight nod as a signal to wake them all up. 

Just as Kris could feel the dream world fading, he remembered the Ace of Diamonds' words about how nobody would remember their encounter with him. He could only hope that all that was simply empty bragging, as there was hardly any point in mentioning it now.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Noelle went to school the next morning bleary eyes and tired. The events of the previous night had certainly persuaded her to ease up on her dreamlands time, and to never again travel outside of the safe zones Asriel had told her about. 

Still, at the very least Kris had been persuaded to finally tell his dad about all the stuff with the dark world. It had only taken a near death experience, but this would make fighting the Knight a whole lot less dangerous for him since he would have his father to help him now. Asgore had been surprisingly knowledgeable about the dream world and stands in general, leading Noelle to believe there was a lot more to the old boss monster than met the eye.

She managed to limp through the day in her slightly shell shocked state, paying enough attention during class to know what the assignments and material were. 

At lunch, she approached Kris and Susie, deciding to make sure that Kris had actually followed through on his promise as well as discuss the events of the last night.

"Hey, Kris." She started, as cheerily as she could. "Did you tell your dad yet? I imagine that was a long conversation."

To her surprise, she only earned a confused look from Susie and the usual deadpan stare from Kris. 

"What's she talking about, freak?" Susie asked. "You spilling the beans to your dad or something?"

To her further shock, Kris shook his head. "I don't know. What ARE you talking about, Noelle?"

"T-the stuff that happened last night, remember?" She asked, almost frantically. Surely she wasn't the only one who remembered. This had to be another of Kris' ill conceived attempts at humor. "The guy with the knife and the city and the fog? Do neither of you really remember that? Because if this is a joke, it isn't funny!"

"You probably just had a bad dream or something." Susie said, leaning back in her chair and putting her feet up on the lunch table. "I was snoozing safe and sound in bed all night. I'd have remembered it if something weird happened."

The conversation followed much the same pattern from there. She tried time after time to persuade Kris and Susie that they had fought an enemy last night, and that Kris had almost died. Yet nothing she could say seemed to convince them, and after a while she was too tired and weary of talking about the traumatic event to persist. She'd try some other time, but she needed rest, and a decent night's sleep.

She hadn't checked with Kris' dad by the time she got back home that day, but she suspected he wouldn't remember the events of the last night nor would he believe her. She simply had to console herself with the idea that the monster they had faced that night was definitely gone for good, though at this point she was starting to wonder if she had imagined the whole thing. 

As usual, she was alone in her house that night by bedtime. Her mom was probably just as busy as usual and her dad's hospital visit wasn't ending anytime soon as far as she knew. Being alone in the house had always made her a little jumpy, so when she walked by a mirror and thought she saw someone standing behind her, she quickly recovered from the initial jolt of fear. 

Certainly she had just imagined it as usual. After all, she WAS alone, and hometown was a peaceful, quiet town where home break-ins were unheard of. 

She checked that all the doors were locked one more time before she went to bed, turning off the lights in the house to make sure they didn't waste any energy while she was sleeping. 

Just as she was drifting off to sleep, she could swear she heard a faint, but eerily familiar voice speaking to her.

"You're my number one, my dear little deer, my lovely little lump of venison. And I'll NEVER let you forget me..."

<\-- To be Continued.


	28. The Touch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kris names his stand, and catches a first glimpse of the arrow.

"Remind me why you're helping us again, Lancer." Susie asked the young darkener as they drew nearer to her house. They had just dropped Kris back off at his place without incident, and she was really hoping that she could make it back home without encountering yet another stand user. "Not that I'm ungrateful, considering you saved our asses tonight, but at some point the Knight's gonna get tired of you not fighting us."

"I don't think so." Lancer replied nonchalantly. "Rouxls is covering for me. And besides, I'm the King's son, the Knight can't touch me."

She hoped for his sake that was true, though she didn't voice that particular sentiment out loud. 

"As for your question. I think I told Kris the answer to that." Lancer continued. "Everyone's afraid of the Knight back in the dark world, so everyone does what he says. I think without the night, my dad wouldn't have to be so mean to people...and maybe he and I could spend more time together, you know?"

That hit a little close to home for her. She couldn't remember her own dad, but by all accounts he was pretty great. So great, in fact, that her mom had become a wreck after he died. It seemed like Lancer had lost his dad too, just in a different way. 

"And...uh...Well, you're kind of cool." Lancer added, a little nervously. "You're actually a bit of a celebrity down in the Dark World, believe it or not. You and Kris both."

"Is that so?" she responded with a grin, the comment having pulled her away from the thoughts of the father she had never really known. 

"Yeah. Word got out that you survived a couple rounds with the Knight." Lancer explained, still not taking his eyes off the road. "Not to mention all the other stand users you and Kris have taken out. Not many people actually like the Knight, you know? Heck, some of the Knight's top people are more loyal to the Boss than they are to him."

"Who's 'the boss'?" Susie asked. She was fairly sure she had never heard anybody go by that before, at least not in any context related to the dark world, but she was very curious about this person who supposedly commanded the loyalty of some of the Knight's people. 

"You've probably heard the Knight mention him at least once." Lancer replied. "Only the Knight would have called him 'he who longs for heaven.' Not that I could tell you how he got that title. He's said a lot of good things about you two, especially Kris, and he's got people whispering about old prophecies and stuff."

None of this was making sense to Susie. The guy the Knight talked about was supposedly the one who told the Knight to go after her and Kris, and yet he was also singing their virtues to the darkeners for some reason? Not that she was about to complain about being popular with the Knight's silent enemies, but she didn't like not being able to understand what was going on. 

The rest of the drive was passed in silence as Susie attempted to puzzle out the motives of 'the boss,' who she also assumed to be the same person who used the arrow to give her a stand. 

All her thinking came to naught, however, and before she knew it Lancer's motorcycle stand was parked right outside her house.

"Thanks for all the help tonight, Lancer." She said as she got off the motorcycle. "We probably wouldn't have made it without you." 

"I'm sure you would have figured something out." Lancer replied, somewhat flippantly. "I'd better get home soon...and make up a story to tell the Knight and my dad. Gotta explain why I didn't get beat up by the big strong dragon, after all."

"Do you really need to head back? Why don't you stay here for the night?" She blurted it out without really thinking, but she couldn't help but feel concern for the young darkener. Lancer might have been comfortable in his position as the King's son, but Susie wasn't quite as confident that he was above the Knight's reproach. 

"If my mom's in a good mood you could probably stay at my place or something. It's kind of a mess, but at least you won't have to worry about the Knight or anything." Of course, she didn't know if her mom had been drinking tonight or not, so it probably wasn't the wisest offer to make. Still, she was finding herself caring for Lancer's safety more than she had expected to. Not in the same way she cared for Kris, of course, she had only that night managed to admit to herself that she had more than just ordinarily friendly feelings towards the quiet, stoic human. Of course, he was the first real friend she had ever had, so maybe what she was feeling was just normal friend feelings. 

"It'll seem more suspicious if I'm gone much longer, but thanks for the offer." Lancer said with an oddly grown up looking smile. "I gotta jet now, toodleoo, Sus!" 

With that, he revved his stand's engine and drove off into the night, leaving Susie alone in front of her house. With an anxious heart, she knocked on her home's front door, hoping that her mom was sober enough to answer. 

"Door's unlocked!" She heard the gruff voice of her mother call from inside. She sounded sober enough, which was a relief. It meant that explaining why she hadn't been home in days might not be quite as bad as she had been expecting. 

Susie wasted no time in opening the door up and heading inside, where she saw the well built, eight foot tall form of her mother slumped on the couch in front of the television with her long, thick tail draped over one side.

"Thought you weren't planning on coming back." The large monster grunted as Susie took a seat on a cushioned chair next to the couch. "Wouldn't have blamed you either."

"Don't talk like that, mom." Susie groaned, now feeling guilty for having stayed away as long as she had. "I was just...having some issues that I needed to work out." 

This explanation earned her a nod from her mother, and Susie sensed that she wasn't about to ask any more. 

"But that's not an excuse." She decided to continue. She couldn't just let a chance to make some amends pass by like this. "I shouldn't just leave you alone like that, and I'm sorry."

At this, her mother raised an eyebrow, though she also gave her a tired but good natured smile. "I appreciate that, Sus, though I didn't expect to hear that from you. It's not like I deserve it or anything considering how I've treated you. If anything, a break from me was probably healthy for you."

"You're sober now, aren't you?" Susie replied. "You're trying, but nobody can do everything alone. We all need some help sometimes, even if you're the biggest or the strongest."

"Geez, did you go on some spirit journey or something?" Her mother chuckled. "Not that I'm complaining, but you never would have said stuff like this a couple weeks ago. What changed?"

"I've just been through a lot of shit, that's all." Susie said with a grin, feeling proud as she recalled everything she and Kris had been through recently. "I've had to deal with stuff that you'd never believe, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

"You met a boy, didn't you?" Her mother asked, a mischievous but knowing tone in her voice.

"W-what, no! It's not anything like that!" Susie stammered out, taken aback by the comment. "Well...t-there might be a boy involved, but that's not the point!" She could feel her face getting slightly flushed, considering that Kris definitely was the whole point of it all.

"Is he cute?" Her mom continued, her tone becoming more teasing, though still affectionate. 

"Well...yeah, he is." Susie mumbled. Her reasons for liking for Kris went well beyond physical appearance, but she had to admit that he WAS cute. "But he's pretty cool too. I used to think he was just a quiet little mama's boy, but that was probably the most wrong I've ever been."

"Bad boy, huh?" Her mom asked. "Didn't think there were any of those in this sleepy little town of ours.

"Not quite." Susie replied with a shake of her head. "Kris is...well behaved most of the time, but when he gets up to something he really goes all out. Guess you could say that he's a mama's boy who knows how to have fun."

"Kris? You mean the Dreemurr kid?" Her mom seemed surprised at the mention of Kris' name, which Susie had somewhat expected. "Huh, I guess weirder things have happened."

"I oughta introduce you two sometime." Susie suggested, seeing as her mother didn't seem to be opposed to the idea of her and Kris hanging out. "I've been to his dad's place and he didn't seem to mind me too much, so I figure I should probably return the favor sometime and ask Kris over here. As long as you're cool with it, that is."

"Think he would mind the place being a bit of a mess?" Her mom asked. It was a fair question, as even Susie's own room was far from neat. Not to say that the place was filthy or squalid, it just wasn't the neatest. 

"I don't think he'll care much." Susie replied with a shrug. "He doesn't strike me as the type to care. In fact, I bet he only cleans his own room because his parents remind him."

"I'll clean up a little anyway, assuming I have the time before he comes over." Susie's mother said, giving out a long yawn afterwards. 

"That time of night, huh?" Susie said, right before the ever infectious quality of yawning got to her. "I'm pretty beat myself. It's been a long day."

"Maybe, but it's the best day I've had in a long time." Her mother replied with a pleased sounding sigh. "I'm glad that how I treated you when I was...in the worst parts of my little issue didn't ruin you forever."

"Takes a lot more than that to keep me down, mom." Susie said with a laugh, attempting to lighten the mood and assuage her mom's guilt as best she could. "There's no point worrying about what's been said or done before now. I just want to be there for you from now on."

"Well when you put it that way, I'm going to have a hard time even thinking about touching a bottle." Her mother replied with a pleased smile as she rose from the couch. "But I'm also having a hard time staying awake right now, as great as this talk has been. I've also got a hell of a lot to sleep on, and I get the impression you've had a rough night."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Susie sighed, getting up as well and moving towards the stairs that led to the second floor, where her room was.

"Got anything to do with that incident at the gas station?" Her mom suddenly asked.

"Uhh...." Susie paused for a moment, not sure if she should try and play ignorant. After a moment or two she decided against it, there was no point ruining the bridge she was rebuilding with her mother by holding things back, even if that carried significant risks. "Yeah, maybe a little. I promise I didn't do anything I didn't have to. Like I said, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. Just didn't realize it would get on the news that quick."

"Try me in the morning." Her mom groaned, shaking her head a little, though she looked more proud than anything. "I promise I won't doubt you, Sus, just let me get some sleep before I hear why you were at an exploding gas station. I want to be there for you too, hell maybe finally be a decent parent for once in my life."

"I promise it's a good story. It's just a long one and I need some sleep before I tell you." Susie assured her mother as she went upstairs. "Goodnight, mom, and thanks for talking."

With that, each of them went to their respective bedrooms to drift into the peaceful embrace of sleep. Susie, for her part, spent her time tossing and turning and wondering if she was making the right decision in confiding in her mom about the dark world. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something happened to her right after they had gotten on good terms again. These thoughts hardly kept her from eventually falling asleep given the exhausting fights she had been through that night, and it didn't take too long for her to finally get her much needed sleep.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Kris' first stop the next morning was Susie's house. He had even set an alarm to wake him up at 5 in the morning to make sure he would get there before the person who left the message on his father's phone last night did. Part of him didn't like going behind his dad's back like this, but he also didn't know enough about the person he heard on the phone. For all he knew, they could be working for the Knight.

Susie's house turned out to be only a fifteen minute walk away, though that was rather long for a small town like Hometown. The sun was just coming up when he arrived, and the lights still seemed to be all off in the house. He was slightly surprised to see that it was a two story place. somehow he had expected it to be smaller, though it did look a bit run down in contrast to the rest of the neighborhood. He was relieved to see that there was nobody standing outside, meaning he had got there first. 

Deciding not to wake Susie yet, given how rough a night they had, he instead elected to sit down under the single tree that sat on the front lawn and keep a lookout for Susie's unexpected visitor.

Since he was the only human that had ever lived in Hometown, and since as far as he knew humans didn't have much reason to travel there, he was expecting a monster. As such, he was surprised when it was a human who rounded a street corner and began walking towards Susie's house. 

Kris was immediately struck with a dislike for the stranger, who also happened to be the only other human he had ever seen aside from himself in a mirror. Perhaps it was the fact that this human bore an unsettling resemblance to him, though it was hardly exact, or maybe it was simply the fact that they had been planning on bothering Susie so early in the morning. Either way, his first impression was inexplicably negative.

Still, he tried to put those feelings out of his mind as he rose to his feet, intent on confronting the stranger. He hoped that they weren't an enemy, given their connection with his dad, but he wasn't about to write off that possibility,

"You must be Kris." The stranger said as they walked up to the front of the lawn. "I didn't expect you to be here this early. In fact, I was expecting your dad instead."

"I know." Kris replied flatly. "He won't be here. Neither will Undyne."

The other human raised an eyebrow, seeming surprised for only a brief moment. "I guess you found the message I left your dad, then. I was sure you'd be in bed by then, but I guess I miscalculated." They were both silent for a couple moments before the stranger extended their hand, adding "I'm Frisk, by the way. Nice to finally meet you."

Kris accepted the handshake warily, though he didn't return the sentiment. "Why are you here?" Kris asked after breaking the brief handshake. 

"Guess there's no point keeping things from you." Frisk sighed. "You're not an enemy, after all. Your dad, Undyne, and I are investigating a string of deaths and missing persons around town, including the disappearance of Father Alvin."

This caught Kris by surprise. He hadn't heard about the priest's disappearance, but then again he hadn't watched the news lately, as he had been rather preoccupied with trying not to die.

"Let me guess. The deaths were piles of monster dust found at the library and the train station, right?" Kris asked, not reacting visibly to the words about Father Alvin. 

"And we're also looking for a substitute teacher who went missing at your school, but yes." Frisk answered. "I assumed Susie had something to do with them because of the state I happened to see her in last night, added to the fact that she was out and about around the same time the gas station exploded."

While Kris wasn't about to reveal what he and Susie had been up to lately, especially to Frisk, he also wanted to get them off of Susie's back. "I don't know anything about Alvin's disappearance, and neither does Susie."

"But you DO know something about the other stuff?" Frisk asked.

Kris started mentally debating answering honestly or not. For some reason, the idea of treating this other human as a friend instead of a potentially hostile individual was growing on him. After all, how bad could someone who his dad trusted really be?

It was at that moment that the door to the house opened, and Susie walked out with a wary look on her face. 

"Who's this weirdo, Kris?" She asked, sounding a little groggy. "And what are you doing here so damn early in the morning?"

Frisk spoke up before Kris had a chance to formulate a response. "I've been trying to help his dad look into some of the odd occurrences around town lately, and I'm about ninety percent certain that you two are involved somehow."

Susie's eyes narrowed as she listened to the other human speak, and Kris was sure he saw a spark of recognition in them for a moment. 

"So...Kris, this weirdo giving you problems?" Susie asked, giving Frisk a wary look. "I know I don't have jack shit to say to them, even if I knew anything."

"I'm not sure I feel the same way, Susie." Kris replied. "Maybe it's time to come clean with my dad about everything that's been-"

Suddenly, Susie brought out Red Buster and sliced at the air vertically, sending a tall wave of energy right into the center of the tree that the two humans were standing near. The attack clearly wasn't aimed at either of them, but Kris soon saw the point of the attack when a humanoid looking stand emerged from behind the tree, having easily avoided Susie's attack. 

The stand had a slim build, with a body adorned with locomotive parts all over, creating a kind of armor. Red hearts decorated the shoulders and "belt buckle" of the stand, and it wore a helmet with a visor that resembled the cow catcher on the front of a train.

It was dodging in Kris' direction, but for a moment his brain registered the motion as an offensive one, and hastily threw his own stand out to hit the other human, succeeding in knocking him to the ground. 

Realizing that this had probably gone too far, Kris rewound time, seeing the events play themselves back in slow motion as usual. As time wound back, however, he noticed something. Concealed under Frisk's trench coat, and visible just for a moment their tumble to the ground was being reversed, was an arrow with an ornate, golden head. 

The sight sent a multitude of new theories flying through his head, but he still had enough wits about him to finish rewinding back to the moment before Susie launched her attack. 

"I'd pull your stand back from behind the tree, because Susie's about to try to hit it." He told the other human, prompting a confused look from Susie. But if you don't want us BOTH to start hitting you, I'd advise explaining why you have that arrow." 

Frisk looked shocked at the statement, though they did move their stand out from behind the tree with a defeated sigh. 

"I figured Susie might have been the person who escaped Undyne and I at the school that one night, but I wasn't sure." Frisk said with a defeated sigh, clearly trying to prolong talking about the arrow.

"Put it back so Kris and I can get answers out of you with clear heads." Susie growled. "I don't know exactly what it does, but I bet it's some kind of hypnotic effect."

"You're kind of right." Frisk sighed as they withdrew their stand. Immediately, Kris could feel his intense dislike and mistrust for the other human return with a vengeance. "It's not mind control exactly. Breakthru just...makes people calmer and easier to talk to as long as it's out and nearby."

"Well you better learn to talk to us without it!" Susie snapped back. "I don't appreciate having my head messed with."

"All right, all right." Frisk relented. "No more stand. So, I don't know how you know about the arrow, but it's just something that I'm keeping safe on your dad's behalf. You can ask him about it if you don't believe me. He and I have been through a lot together."

"If that's going to be your defense, then we don't have anything more to talk about until I have a chat with my dad." Kris told the other human. "All I can say is that having that arrow means you could be our enemy."

"Fine." Frisk replied, turning on their heel and heading back the way they came down the sidewalk. "I'll see you two soon."

"Do you think they were 'He who longs for heaven,' Kris?" Susie asked, once Frisk was out of earshot. "If they are, then they're the person who asked the Knight to kill you."

"I don't know for sure." Kris replied. "But it's definitely a possibility. Likely enough that I can't trust them for now. Thanks for snapping me out of their stand's effects, by the way. I was about to start talking."

"Did I?." Susie asked,a confused expression on her face. "I was about to guess that their stand was out and behind the tree, but I wasn't sure."

"I rewound." Kris told her. "We ended up roughing them up more than I was comfortable with, so I decided it was better to try and talk it out, if only because they're a friend of my dad's. During the rewind was when I caught a glimpse of the arrow."

"Damn, that ability of yours is pretty sweet." Susie whistled, a grin spreading across her features. "Speaking of which, you gotta name it at some point. Everyone else we know has a name for theirs, even if some of them are a little dorky."

Kris knew she was referring to the fact that Noelle had named her stand, which he still didn't really understand at all, after her favorite holiday song. 

"I'll think about it." Kris responded, finding the idea honestly a little silly. 

"That wasn't a request, freak." Susie sighed. "I need something to call it. And besides, even our enemies name theirs. Can't have my partner look like a dweeb who didn't bother to name his, right?"

 

Kris thought about it for a few moments, figuring that he wasn't going to hear the end of it until he finally gave his stand a name. 

"The Touch." He finally said. "That good enough for you?"

Susie seemed to mull it over for a bit before responding with a shrug. "Sure, I guess. Better than no name at all and I don't have any better ideas. Anyway, with that settled, you wanna come inside? I haven't shown you my place yet, and my mom's more than okay with it."

That was an unexpected offer. Susie had never made any sign of wanting to have him over before, and everything she had said previously pointed to the fact that she didn't have a particularly good relationship with her mother. Either something had changed last night or Kris had totally misread the situation. Either way, it was a welcome development that he wasn't about to say no to.

"As long as it's not a bother, I'd love to." He replied, perhaps sounding less enthusiastic than he felt. "I've got an hour or two before I'd usually join my dad for church anyway."

"Sweet!" Susie exclaimed, opening the front door and motioning for Kris to follow her. "My mom's still asleep. Turns out she cleaned the whole house while I was zonked out last night, so she was probably tired as shit. I'm sure you'll get to meet her before you have to go though."

Kris was actually slightly anxious at the thought of meeting Susie's mom, though he knew it was necessary at some point. Still, there was no time like the present, so he summoned up his courage and followed Susie indoors. It was about time he got to understand what her home life was like, and he had a lot of questions about that particular subject. He only hoped he could manage to actually ask them without pissing Susie off.

<\-- To be continued


	29. Family Business, Part 1

Susie's room was a bit more spartan then Kris had expected. An old dresser likely containing clothes was the only piece of furniture in the room apart from her bed and there were none of the posters or other similar decorations that adorned the rooms of the other hometown residents Kris knew that were around his age. Of course, the only person besides Susie that he did know and that were anywhere close to his age was Noelle. 

"It's cleaner then I thought it'd be." He quipped, trying to sound as good natured as he could. 

"What'd you expect? Buncha candy wrappers all over the floor or something?" Susie chuckled. "Eh, I wish." She added, somewhat wistfully.

"You know, you could probably raid a vending machine with little to no trouble with your stand. Those things eat your money so often that it'd barely be theft." Kris mused in a mostly jesting manner, though a part of him was considering trying it sometime.

"Don't give me ideas, freak." Susie responded with a jovial laugh. "What would your mom think if she heard you talking like that, anyway?"

"It'd probably be right off to the confessional for me." Kris replied, only half jokingly considering a few of the times his mother had insisted he go and have a heart to heart with father Alvin after some relatively harmless incident or another. Though some of them were only harmless if your name wasn't Noelle.

"What about your mom?" Kris continued, hoping it wouldn't make Susie uncomfortable. "What would she think of a harmless little thing like that?"

"She doesn't know about stands yet." Susie sighed as she took a seat on her bed. "Though I'm hoping to tell her about that stuff today, dark world included. Hopefully with you there to make sure she doesn't think I'm crazy."

This took Kris by surprise. He had always thought that telling either of his parents about the dark world would put them in the Knight's cross-hairs.

"Susie, you sure about that?" He asked. "Don't you think that would put her in unnecessary risk?"

"Look, Kris. I know the risk's there, but she doesn't have a stand, and she deserves to know why I've been away from home for the past couple of days. She's already guessed that I might have had something to do with the gas station anyway." Susie spoke with a certainty and determination in her eyes that Kris had only just gotten used to seeing in combat. 

In all his interactions with her outside of fighting other stand users, Susie had always seemed defensive and unsure of herself at some level, even if she had eased up on the overt hostility a while ago. 

"Honestly, I wanted to just run away from helping my mom." Susie continued, a look of guilt on her face. "It's not an easy thing to try and keep someone away from a bottle when they get a bad mood and a desire to drown it, but if I don't help her through this, nobody else will."

Kris now dared to sit down next to her, something she didn't seem to mind. Instead, she simply seemed grateful that he was listening. 

"I was ready to run from the dark world too." She admitted. "After we left the dark world for the first time, I was seriously thinking about just skipping town and leaving all that business with the Knight behind."

"But you didn't." Kris finally spoke up. "There's no point dwelling on what you thought about doing, is there?"

"I'm not beating myself up." She assured him. "I swear I was just about to get to the point, which is that you taught me not to run from my problems and kick the can down the road. That's why I have to be honest with my mom about this. It won't do the bridge we're rebuilding any favors if I hide stuff from her."

"All right." Kris sighed, resigning himself to the thought of helping Susie explain the mess they were in to her mom. "If you feel like you need to, I'm not about to stop you. Besides, if anyone can protect her from any consequences, it's you."

"Thanks, freak." Susie replied, an uncharacteristic warm smile coming over her features. "Besides, knowing about it might help her keep sober. Nothing like imminent danger to keep the hand off the bottle, right?"

Kris considered that it might have the opposite effect, but chose not to voice that concern. "I hope you're right." He simply said. "Think she'll be awake soon?"

"We can go check on her in a bit." Susie told him. "Before that I want to hear what the deal was with the other human. I know they're the same person that chased me around the school that one night, but I don't know what their deal is."

"As far as I know, they're helping my dad and Undyne try and figure out why we keep leaving monster dust in odd places. Apparently Father Alvin vanished too, and they think it's related to whatever problem we're having. The thing that happened at the school probably confused the heck out of them too."

"You think we should set the record straight?" Susie asked. "Just get them off our tail. Hell, maybe even get some help with the Knight while we're at it."

"No way." Kris replied quickly, despite briefly entertaining the possibility of filling his dad in. Despite how much he disliked hiding things from his dad, he couldn't bear it if something happened to him because he had gotten in a fight that he and Susie could have handled on their own. Besides, Asriel had advised him against it, and Kris was inclined to trust his judgement, given their history. "You might need to mend bridges with your mom, but all telling my parents would do is put them in danger."

"If that's how you feel, I won't say a word about it." Susie reassured him. "And I'll try and make sure my mom does the same."

"Ready to go talk to her, then?" Kris asked, despite not being sure he was ready himself.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Susie said with a nod, rising from her seat on the bed. "Let's go see if she's awake."

The two of them made their way downstairs, where Kris got his first sight of who he could only assume to be Susie's mom. She was much taller than he had expected, but more surprising was the huge tail that she had draped over one side of the couch. Now that he thought about it, he had sort of just assumed that Susie didn't have a tail, even though she could be hiding a stub tail under the long coats and jackets she usually wore. It was an odd train of thought, and one he was quickly snapped out of when Susie's mother greeted him.

"Nice to finally meet you, Kris." She said, her expression more amused than anything. "I've been told you two blew up a gas station or something. Now, when I imagined my daughter bringing a boy home, I expected to hear all kind of stuff that I wasn't quite ready for. You know, as a mother and all. But what I didn't expect to hear was: 'Hey mom, I've had a life changing experience in the past few days and then broke the local gas station.' Now, my daughter isn't the criminal type, no matter how scary she looks, so I'd like to know how on the angel's green earth that happened." She didn't seem angry, despite her words, which surprised Kris to no end. He imagined if he were a parent who didn't know what a stand was, he'd be considerably upset if any descendant of his told him that they had destroyed a gas station out of the blue.

"That's....a...long story." Kris mumbled, unable to find what he considered appropriate words. 

"Then sum it up for me, will you?" Susie's mother chuckled, obviously finding some humor in the absurdity of the situation.

"Don't worry, mom. I'll tell you everything and Kris here will fill in any details I miss. I promise it's pretty awesome." Susie assured her mom, looking more proud of herself than Kris felt would be appropriate for the moment. It was all to easy for him to forget that not all mothers were like his own. He began to feel more at ease once Susie started telling the whole story, starting from a brief explanation about stands, which required a demonstration from Susie to truly prove her point; Said demonstration involved Susie using Red Buster to lift the very couch that her mother was sitting on. Once the existence of their ability was well proven, Susie began going into their first foray into the dark world. To Kris' relief, Susie's mother seemed more amazed than upset.

At the end of the story, when Kris and Susie concluded their telling of the previous night's events, Susie's mother had a look of pure awe on her face. They were all silent for a few long, awkward moments until Susie's mother leaned back in her seat and took a deep breath in and out. 

"First of all, I'm so sorry that I didn't know what you were going through, Susie." The large monster began, a look of genuine guilt on her face as she addressed her daughter. "This...kinda makes any problems I've had seem insignificant by comparison."

"Don't worry about it now, mom." Susie responded, relief clearly present in her voice. "I'm just happy that you're believing me now."

"Second of all, I got warned about a lot of things that kids do back before I became a mother. Things like 'oh they cry and scream all night, they throw up a lot, and they need more sleep than they're willing to have.' But I never in my life expected that..." Here she paused for a few moments, mulling over her next words. "I knew you were going to be a lot cooler than any of my friends' kids, Sus. But you've really gone past anything I know about motherhood. That said, your punch ghost thing is pretty fucking awesome. I'm totally unequipped to help you decide what to do with it, but it's really damn cool."

"Better reaction than my mom would have had." Kris commented quietly, the remark being more of a thought spoken quietly to himself than anything.

"That's because I'm chronically irresponsible. Now, this does bring me to my third point. Which is that I have zero fucking clue how to help either of you. As the oldest person in the room, that's kinda scary." 

"We've been handling it pretty well, mom. At least I think so. I'm not looking for more help with this, but I decided you needed to know."

"I appreciate that." Susie's mother said with a shrug. "If there's nothing I can do other than make home as nice as I can for you, then that's what I'll do."

"I just didn't want to keep any secrets from you. Time with Kris has gotten me to realize how important it is to talk like this. Guess we've both got a lot to thank him for, huh?"

Susie's mother gave her daughter a nod before addressing Kris. "Between keeping my daughter alive and being a good friend to her, you've done a lot for both of us. I might not know much about you, but I get the feeling that if anyone can get through the shit you're being put through, it's you and my daughter."

"That's high praise, Miss..." Kris suddenly paused, just realizing now that he hadn't asked Susie her family's last name. 

"Just Susanne will do, kid. No need to be overly formal."

"Miss Susanne it is, then." Kris blurted out, without really thinking of the second half of Susanne's previous remark.

"I swear, mom, he's never this formal when we're hanging out. At least not lately." Susie groaned as she gave Kris a shake of her head. "Come on, freak. I'm hungry, we've got a bunch of pizza in the fridge, and I'd bet five bucks that the microwave still works. We've got a long day ahead of us, and I wanna get a bite to eat before we deal with any problems caused by our little party last night."

Kris let a barely perceptible smile creep over his face as he followed Susie to the kitchen. Pretty soon he found himself seated around Susie's modest kitchen table feasting on the leftovers of the previous (and likely a few before that) day's pizza, discussing more mundane and happy topics than stands and dark worlds. All in all, meeting Susie's mom had gone a lot better than he had expected, but ever since the meeting with the other human in the morning, he had begun to suspect that going back to his father was going to be the harder thing to do. Still, he tried not to dwell on the near future and allowed himself to simply enjoy the moment instead. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

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Undyne hadn't been able to stop pacing back and forth in Asgore's living room for half an hour now. Frisk had just brought back the news of their first clue in weeks and the results of following up on it, something that she and Asgore were supposed to have been there for. 

She was having a hard time wrapping her head around two things. The first was why Kris was going to such trouble to avoid telling his own father anything about the increasingly serious looking situation that he was clearly in. Two piles of monster dust and a flaming gas station was nothing to scoff at, and things didn't seem to show any sign of doing anything but escalating. The second question taking up space in her head was why in the world her 'attacker' at the school had to be that purple delinquent of all people. It felt like just about everybody except her had a stand now, and it didn't sit well with her. Even if hamon was pretty damn cool, she still couldn't see stands, let alone touch them. 

"What I don't understand is how this is connected with Alvin's disappearance." Asgore suddenly said, breaking the ponderous silence they had been sitting -and in Undyne's case pacing- for a while now.

"It might not be." Frisk mused. "But knowing that it's not related would make our investigation a lot easier, even if Kris decides he doesn't want any help."

"Whatever he's mixed up in, he probably needs it." Undyne mumbled, finally stopping her pacing and taking a seat next to Asgore. 

"The question is whether he knows he needs it." Frisk remarked. "If those piles of monster dust were all enemies of his, he probably thinks he's doing pretty well. Not to mention that he already has someone helping him."

Undyne and Asgore mumbled their assent, and with nothing really left to say on the matter, the group simply waited for Kris' inevitable return to his father's house.

This happened somewhat sooner than expected, as only an hour after lunchtime Kris entered his father's home with Susie in tow. She looked somewhat surprised to see Undyne and Frisk there, but Kris' face showed no such emotion.

"I think we all have a lot of questions." He stated. 

"Damn right, punk." Undyne grunted in reply. "You have any idea how many late nights we've all had on account of those dust piles you two have left laying around?"

"In hindsight, we should have gotten a vacuum cleaner. It's as much as those assholes deserved, anyway." Susie remarked, getting a wry chuckle out of Undyne. 

"Dad, could I talk with you alone?" Kris asked.

"Why not talk here, son?"

"Because I don't trust them." Kris gestured over to Frisk. "Even less so now that I saw that arrow they have."

"You brought the arrow HERE?" Asgore asked Frisk, sounding somewhat incredulous.

"It wasn't safe anywhere else. You of all people should know that, Asgore."

"Were you the one who gave me my stand?" Susie asked suddenly. "You're the most likely suspect considering the arrow and everything."

"I don't go around trying to give people stands." Frisk replied. "It's dangerous, for one. If someone who doesn't have the potential to become a stand user is pierced by the arrow, they die. In a monster's case they turn to dust within seconds, while a human would go brain dead in the same amount of time. It would be incredibly reckless to use the arrow that way."

"That's what you say, but so far you're the only one I know of that has one of those arrows, and that makes you my prime suspect." Kris said in reply, his mind clearly not changed in the slightest.

"All right, Kris," His father sighed, rising slowly from his seat. "We can talk alone."

Kris gave him an appreciative nod as he followed him into another room, giving Susie one last remark as he left. "Don't break anyone while I'm gone."

With that, she was left alone with Undyne and Frisk, the latter of whom was merely lying down on the couch as if trying to take a nap.

"How's the head?" Susie asked, clearly directing the question at Undyne.

"I heal fast." She grumbled in response. "Besides, it didn't hit THAT hard."

"How much was the uniform wash?" Susie continued, taking a seat on one of the cushioned seats that graced the room.

"More than my salary was comfortable with. We're not SUPPOSED to get those dirty, punk! Especially in a small town like this."

"As fun as that was, I am sorry. Mostly for knocking you flat with that apple." 

Susie's apology caught Undyne by surprise. That wasn't like Susie, at least not the Susie that she knew from the rumors and idle chatter of kids on their way to school. 

"Don't mention it." Was the only reply she could muster. Part of her wanted to try and question the delinquent while they were all waiting for Kris and Asgore to finish their little father-son bonding session, but something told her that it would only be a frustrating waste of time. 

"I bet we've been a a major pain in the ass." Susie continued. "But I swear we didn't do anything we didn't have to. Kris has been insistent on not getting his dad involved from the beginning. As much as I kind of wanted some more help, Kris has been a hell of a lot better to me than I deserve, and if he didn't want to risk his dad getting hurt, I wasn't about to object."

"Jeez. Like father, like son, huh?" Undyne remarked. "Guess I can't really fault either of you for it, even if you two singlehandedly ruined my sleep schedule."

Despite the impressions she had held about Susie for a long time, Undyne couldn't find it within herself to be the slightest bit angry at the delinquent. 

It seemed like she and Susie were both tasked by fate to stand by their respective Dreemurr's side while they wrestled with the task of keeping secrets to protect the ones they loved, and that alone was enough to make Undyne feel a kind of kinship with the dragon-monster. 

"I'm still proud of that throw though." Susie added, somewhat diminishing her earlier comments. Still, the sentiment of them wasn't lost on Undyne.

"It was a pretty good throw." Undyne admitted grudgingly. "I bet I could knock you out with an apple though."

"I'd like to see you try!" Susie growled, an amused smile coming over her features.

"Give me a time and place and I'll kick your ass any day of the week, punk!"

"Sure thing! How about-"

Much to Undyne's disappointment, Kris and Asgore came back into the living room before either of them could name a date. 

"Well, our investigation has gotten a lot simpler." Asgore declared. "Undyne, Frisk, you and I will be investigating only the disappearance of our friend Alvin. Kris has decided that whatever battle he's fighting, he wishes to fight it alone. He has, however, assured me that the piles of dust are all 'the bad guys,' and I am inclined to believe him."

"Not alone." Susie assured Asgore, earning her an appreciative nod from the boss monster.

"All right, then." Frisk said, rising from their comfortable position on the couch. "I still think the two are related, but I'm willing to back off until I can prove it."

"I think we should adjourn for now, then. My son and I need to head to church, and I'm sure you and Undyne have things you want to do, Frisk."

"Want to come with me this time, Susie?" Kris asked, hoping that she'd take him up on the offer this week. Even if she'd only get to meet the replacement priest rather than the ever pleasant and calm Father Alvin, he wanted to at least get her to try it once.

"Sure, freak." She replied with a gentle sigh. "Not like I have anything else to do today anyway.

As much as she tried to make it sound like she was accepting grudgingly, Kris could tell that she liked the excuse to spend more time together. The sentiment warmed his heart, a welcome feeling given how bad he felt about continuing to keep secrets from his dad, even if his father had understood his reasons for doing so. Hopefully the rest of the day would let him forget those feelings, and let him just enjoy his time with Susie before they had to fight again.

<\-- To be continued


	30. Memories of that blood, part 3

Kris spent the next night at his mother's house. Thankfully, she didn't even ask if he had anything to do with the gas station incident. It must have been unimaginable for her that he would get involved in something like that, and a month ago she would have been right.

He was trying to plan out how to introduce Susie to his mom, a task that he was scared of more than any enemy stand user. After about an hour of tossing and turning while he tried to think, he simply decided to let himself sleep so he could think about it in the morning with a clear head. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He knew he was dreaming immediately. The feeling of being trapped in his own body was less intense than usual, but he still knew that his actions were not done of his own will and that his thoughts, though they felt natural, were not his own either.

He was sitting in front of a desk in a room that he quickly identified as a study. In front of him was a computer that produced a low, gentle hum. The screen was open to a window that contained a small program with all sorts of audio and visual sliders on its side. Over the headphones he was wearing, he could hear the sounds of somebody walking.

He was in control enough to take a look around the room, which was just barely lightened enough by candles for him to see. He was sitting in a corner of the room with his back to the wall that held the door. The wall to the left of him was covered with bookshelves full of old, dusty looking tomes. To his right he saw a modestly sized bed, which he immediately knew to be his own, as well as a closet that was closed at the moment. He also noticed that the floor and walls were stone, like the kind one would expect to see in a castle.

Suddenly hearing faint voices, he turned back to the computer screen and turned the master volume slider up.

"-for agreeing to see me today. I am afraid it's a matter of some importance to them." 

The voice was Asgore, there was no doubt about that. It brought Kris some measure of calm to hear his father's voice, and he was able to forget the uneasiness he had been feeling. It was also at this moment that Kris realized that the audio was coming from a listening device he had planted in the pen that his father took with him nearly everywhere, at least as far as this dream was concerned.

"That's what we're here for, sir. It's no trouble at all." The second voice was that of a middle aged woman. For some reason, Kris was sure it was a human.

"Well, you'll be glad to know that they've been a model child. Azzie loves them more than anything else in the world and I think they've been good for each other. They don't even fight like you hear some siblings that parents tell horror stories about."

"It's always a joy to hear that, mister Dreemurr. Oftentimes adopted children have problems integrating, especially with a family that's so different from them. It's good that you haven't had any of those problems."

"I'm not coming to ask you about a problem, so to speak. It's just that I got asked the question that all foster parents get asked eventually. You know the one."

"You didn't find out when you adopted them?"

"I couldn't get a straight answer back then, and Tori was too excited to let that stop us at the time."

"well..." There was a lot of hesitance in the woman's voice, something Kris wasn't expecting.

"You see, their mother died at childbirth. I can give you her name if you think it l be any help, but I don't think it's the kind of answer they're looking for."

"I see..." Asgore murmured sadly. "...and their father?"

"Well, that's the difficult thing. We don't know. The person who brought them to the orphanage was a hospital official, and even they couldn't tell us who the father was."

"Don't humans have things called 'DNA' tests or something like that? Did they ever do one of those to find out who the father was?"

"That's the other thing. They did. The results showed evidence of the mother, of course, but in the places where they would expect to find evidence of the father they found...something else. We just assumed it was a monster but we're not sure."

That didn't sound right. Kris was pretty sure he wasn't half monster. He couldn't even use magic like Asriel or anything like that. 

"Do you have the records here?" Asgore asked. "I can fax them to an associate of mine and she should be able to get us both some answers."

"Let me see if they're cleared for release, though I don't think there'll be a problem."

What followed were the sounds of someone getting up from a chair, indicating that the woman had gone to go find the records Asgore wanted.

Kris' hands went to the mouse and keyboard and changed the audio input to Asgore's phone. How he had managed to tap into it, he had no idea. 

A few minutes of idle spinning his office chair later, Kris began to hear Alphys' voice over his headset.

"S-sorry it took me so long to get back to you, s-sir."

He could never stand that little stuttering oaf, but at the very least she kept herself secluded in her own little gremlin cave. What Undyne saw in her, he would never know.

"It's no problem, I imagine this is a unique situation." Asgore's voice was much kinder than Kris thought the lizard deserved, but that was simply how his father was. Always far too nice for his own good.

"W-well, you know how you suggested that the unknown parts might be from a monster when you texted me earlier?" 

"What else could it be?"

"I c-couldn't tell you. W-whoever the father is, they're not human OR monster. I-it's like nothing I've ever seen before."

Kris closed the listening software. He had heard quite enough now, but wasn't sure whether to chalk his unknown parentage up to Alphys' incompetence or if his father really was something neither human nor monster.

As he was pondering this question, he suddenly bolted upright from his seat and called his stand out. The closet door was now open wide, and it was not the kind of door that idly drifted open once closed.

He cautiously approached the closet, keeping his stand in front of him to shield him from any potential attackers. He had no idea who could possibly have made it into his room without him knowing considering the five locks on the main door and lack of any windows, but he couldn't discount the possibility of it being a stand user.

Curiously enough, the closet had nobody in it. This befuddled Kris until he saw the neatly sealed envelope sitting on the closet floor. This hadn't been here before, which meant that somebody had been in here in the last few minutes, and had just opened the door so that he would find the letter.

He hastily opened it, some part of him knowing that despite the possibility of the letter being a trap, the timing of its delivery was simply too odd to ignore. Deep down, he knew this had something to do with his father.

"My dear, dear child." The letter began, penned in a fancy cursive that he could barely read. "I have long awaited the day when the time was right for you to know me, and at last it has arrived. Know that you will have no answers from the Dreemurrs. Even if they knew the truth, they would not tell you. Instead, come to Cairo, and meet me at the Great Pyramids in that land where I was once worshiped. Then I shall open your eyes to what lies beyond the thin veil of reality, and you shall know the destiny of your blooodline.

Tell no one, or I shall not be there, and you shall remain ignorant for the rest of your life."

It was an entirely odd letter, but Kris somehow could feel the sincerity of the words. Even if he hadn't, his curiosity was too much to ignore it. Already knowing the excuse he was going to give his adopted family, he sat back down at the computer and booked a single ticket to Cairo.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kris awoke to the taste of butterscotch pie in his mouth, a fork in his hand, and an empty pie tin in front of him. He glanced around the room frantically, being totally disoriented by waking up someplace not in his own bed, and standing straight upright in front of the counter no less.

He was in his mother's kitchen, a single light over the sink turned on. He could tell that he had just devoured the leftover half of the pie his mother had made that evening. 

Could this be the work of an enemy stand? If so, it was terribly benign. Sure he'd have a stomach ache tomorrow, but that didn't seem like something the Knight's assassins would go to so much trouble to give him.

"Kris...are you all right?" a tiny voice came from behind him. 

He wheeled around quickly to see Ralesi standing a meter or two away from him, a concerned look on his face. 

"I...uh...sleep eating, I guess." He replied with the only explanation that came to mind. 

"I'm just glad it wasn't a burglar or something! I heard someone rustling around in the kitchen when I was coming down for some water, but I decided I should see who it was before I woke anyone up."

"We'd better both get back to bed." Kris mumbled, throwing away the empty pie tin and hastily cleaning off the fork. "We'll talk about this in the morning, okay Ral?" 

Ralesi simply gave him a nod and went back upstairs with his water, leaving Kris to finish cleaning up the evidence even if it wouldn't do him much good. It was going to be pretty obvious who had eaten the last of the pie. He was considerably less worried about his mother's wrath than he was about the reason he got up to eat in the middle of the night while somehow being totally asleep. 

Still, that would have to be a problem for tomorrow. He was extremely tired, despite having been asleep for a few hours if the clock was right. He just hoped he didn't have one of those dreams again, two in one night would be more than he was willing to put up with.

 

<\-- To be continued


	31. Family Business, Part 2

Thankfully, Kris had no more dreams that night and was woken up when Ralesi gently shook him awake for school instead of the cold sweat that had accompanied the dreams in the past. The weekend was over, and that meant classes again. Not that he was complaining about getting some time to ponder the problem of introducing the school "bully" to his hyper vigilant mother. School was good for another reason, as he would get a chance to ask Noelle if her stand could maybe do something about his odd dreams. He knew that her stand had something to do with sleep and dreams, but the details had been kind of lost on him when she tried to explain it.

By the time he was ready to go to school, Ralesi had already left with his mother. This was just as well, as it allowed Kris to meet with Susie at the street corner so they could walk to school together. In the first few days of their friendship this had been a precaution against getting ambushed by the knight's people, but now it was more an opportunity to get some time to talk before classes started. 

They conversation was entirely devoid of stand related talk this morning, instead consisting of friendly banter and sharing their thoughts about the upcoming final exams. It was strange to think that summer would be coming up soon, but it would make their entire situation a lot easier when they didn't have classes. 

The issue of his dreams was hanging over his head, but he decided not to worry Susie with that kind of talk; especially when she couldn't do anything about it. The dubious honor of worrying for his mental health would have to go to Noelle; assuming he could find her today, of course. 

Before they got to school, Kris decided to broach the topic of introducing Susie to his mother. 

"Hey, Susie, you gonna be free this evening?" 

"I want to actually get home tonight, freak, but sure. Why do you ask, anyway?"

"Well..." Kris took a deep breath, trying to decide how best to ask the question. "I may not be planning on telling my parents about our situation, but I should probably introduce you to my mom at some point. Eventually she's going to ask who my new friend is, and I'm not sure I can dodge the question if she asks directly."

"Kris, I've survived having a stand punching around in my guts, getting knocked around by Lancer's uncle, and then all that crap with Motorhead. I can survive your mom, so don't worry about that. I'm guessing you want to do that after school, right?"

"If you can spare the time" Kris said, giving Susie a nod. "I was thinking of asking my mom about having you over for dinner tonight. I kind of hate to ask this right after you've made up your mind to spend more time with your mom and all, but I want to rip off the band aid, so to speak."

"Like I said, I'm fine with it." Susie assured him. "Just don't expect me to dress up all fancy or anything."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Kris replied, though privately wondering what Susie would look like in formal clothes.

The rest of their walk was uneventful, as were their morning classes. It was only around lunchtime that anything weird happened. Noelle approached him and Susie and started talking about what sounded to him like nothing more than a bad dream. 

She kept talking about some kind of dream monster that they had allegedly fought the other night, how Kris' dad had helped them win, and how Kris had apparently promised to tell him about the dark world after they woke up.

Despite the fact that it wasn't the most implausible thing ever when you consider the wide variety of stands out there, Kris couldn't bring himself to believe it. Something about the whole story made it definitely sound like a dream to him, and Susie seemed to have the same sentiment. Eventually, Noelle finally gave up trying to convince them of her story, though she still seemed frustrated.

Taking some leave from Susie for a few minutes after Noelle stalked off angrily, Kris caught up with her under the excuse of going to calm her down.

"What do you want now, Kris?" The doe huffed as angrily as she could manage, which sounded more indignant than angry. 

"I might believe that your whole story was a dream, but if I recall the story right, you said that your stand can influence people's dreams somehow?"

Noelle seemed about to launch into a lengthy explanation for a moment, but sighed and opted for a quick reply instead. "Yeah, basically."

"I need you to not tell anyone else about this. Not yet, anyway. But I've been having weird dreams lately, and last night I was walking around and eating in my sleep." 

Kris didn't want to worry anyone who couldn't likely do anything about his problem, as he knew that the feeling of being unable to help someone was intensely stressful and frustrating. He had learned that lesson when his parents were divorcing. 

"Well...I don't know for sure if I can help with that, but I might be able to figure out the cause. Just sleep like usual and I'll call you if I figure anything out."

"Thanks, Noelle." He gave her an appreciative nod as he turned to go back to Susie despite the vagueness of her words and the fact that they didn't comfort him in the slightest. 

"Kris, if I manage to figure out your problem will you promise to take my story more seriously?"

Kris quickly decided that if Noelle really could do that, humoring her nightmare story wouldn't be too high of a price to pay. "I promise. So long as you figure out what's going on with me."

With that, they parted ways and Kris returned to his favorite purple dragon. Again, they chose not to talk about anything related to the dark world or stands, both of them half hoping that the Knight had just given up. Kris was stressed enough just worrying about introducing Susie to his mom anyway, something which he was very soon going to have to do. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that day, a few hours before sunset, Susie stood nervously on the doorstep of Toriel's house. Kris had apparently already talked to his mom about having a guest over, but hadn't yet told her who it was. 

He was probably hoping that she would be less willing to chastise Kris for taking up with the school bully if she was there when the news got broken to her. She wasn't sure that he was right about that, but she also figured that he knew his mom better than she did. 

With perhaps the most uncertainty and anxiety she had ever had since she first entered the dark world, Susie knocked on the door. Within moments, the door opened to reveal Kris standing there with his mother right behind him, a warm smile on her face that soon turned into a look of confusion when she saw Susie.

"Hey, Susie. You're right on time too, dinner's just about ready." Kris looked about as anxious as Susie thought he could. It was barely perceptible on his face, and it was only because of all the time they'd spent together that she was able to tell.

"Nice to see you, Kris." She replied, putting on what she hoped was a very innocent looking expression. "And it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Dreemurr."

"uhh....yes, a pleasure to finally meet you as well, Susie. Please come in."

Despite the invitation, Susie could tell that she was putting her best face on because Kris was there. If not for his presence she likely would have been turned out on the spot. Susie figured that the old goat must not have wanted Kris to decide that he liked his dad more.

"My pleasure." She replied as she entered the house and was quickly shown to a seat at the table by Kris. 

The food was delicious, and Toriel was quiet for a while, allowing Kris, Susie, and Ralesi to chat about school related stuff while carefully avoiding any mention of stands. 

It wasn't until about half way through the meal that Toriel finally spoke up. "Well, I see you've become very good friends with my son, Susie. I do want to thank you for that, but I also don't think I know exactly how that happened. Do you think you could tell me?"

Her tone was non-threatening, but somehow managed to be extremely stern at the same time. So stern, in fact, that Susie's mind raced for some convenient lie to tell. A quick glance at Kris told her that he was doing something similar.

"Well...we just kind of got to talking one day out of boredom and it turned out that we share a lot of interests." Susie really hoped that this would be enough, even if it didn't even sound legitimate to her. 

The look on Toriel's face told Susie that she definitely wasn't buying it, and was simply trying to figure out how to probe further without offending Kris. 

"What sort of things did you two find you had in common?" She finally asked, sounding extraordinarily suspicious. 

"We, uh, both liked wrestling!" She blurted out without thinking. "We had to do it for PE one day and Kris was better at it than I thought!"

In a way it was slightly analogous to how they had each learned that the other was a stand user. Susie hoped that this gave it something of a ring of truth to it.

"That sounds rather dangerous." Toriel murmured in a concerned tone. "And I can't help but wonder if you're entirely sure of what you're saying. For one, I'm fairly certain that the school's PE does NOT include wrestling."

Susie swallowed nervously, realizing that she had briefly forgotten that Toriel worked at the very school that she was fibbing about. 

"I'm sorry mom." Kris spoke up, surprising everyone at the table and drawing their attention to him. "I didn't want to tell you because I figured you didn't need more to worry about, but it's not good of me to have Susie try to hide it on my behalf."

Not missing a beat, and with a voice free of doubt or other tell tale signs of lying, Kris continued. "Susie and I became friends when we both happened to get stopped by the same group of bullies. You know that normally wouldn't be a problem with my ability, but the leader of their little bunch had the same kind of power. Luckily, so did Susie, and the two of us made sure that they'll never bother us again. Non-lethally, of course, we just roughed them up a little."

At this Toriel gave a mix between a sigh and groan that sounded both relieved and distressed at the same time. "Oh, Kris. If I had known that you were having problems like those I would have helped! I am your mother after all, I'm supposed to protect you."

"Like I said, Susie and I handled it." Kris assured her in a relaxed tone. "Besides, I'm practically an adult by now. Protecting you should be my job, not the other way around."

"I suppose..." Toriel murmured sadly. "I'm still coming to terms with that, I suppose." The boss monster now turned to Susie with an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry for being so accusatory. I should thank you for helping my son...and for being his friend."

"It's no problem, Miss Toriel." Susie replied with a sigh of relief. "Kris is pretty great. In fact, he's the reason I don't skip class anymore."

"Susie helped Kris get me here!" Ralesi piped up. "I owe a lot to them, and I don't know why there's lots of rumors about Susie being mean at school, because she's been a great friend." Susie could tell that the darkener had been gathering his courage to speak up the whole time, and she was grateful that he had finally added his voice to Kris' endorsement.

"If both of my adopted sons think of you as a friend, the rumors at school must be woefully undeserved." Toriel's expression softened somewhat, and Susie could tell that she was definitely buying Kris' story. "I suppose I shouldn't have been so suspicious. Kris' judgement has always been dependable."

"Hey, I'm not complaining." Susie shrugged. "'I didn't exactly have a good track record up until Kris and I started hanging out."

"Well, be that as it may, I shall put that out of my mind going forward. It really is a pleasure to finally have been able to meet you, Susie."

From there, the conversation returned to normal things, though Susie felt considerably more relaxed now that Toriel's concerns were dealt with. Other than a conspicuous lack of that butterscotch pie that Kris had sung his praises of, a shortage that Susie could tell caused Kris a brief twinge of guilt when it was pointed out, the night proceeded smoothly up until it was finally time for Susie to go home. As nice as Kris' mom had been after they had broken the ice, Susie still preferred her own mom. The dragon's lack of conventional table manners had drawn a look of motherly anger from Toriel on a few occasions during the meal, and Susie could tell that she had just barely contained herself from giving her guest a scolding.

"See? I told you I could survive." Susie whispered to Kris as she got ready to go. Toriel was busy cleaning up, so there wasn't a chance she'd overhear them over the sound of the water running.

"I'd been planning that little story out all day. I'm just relieved she bought it."

"You've got a pretty decent mom." Susie told him. "But I get the feeling I'd like her less in large doses."

"Probably true." Kris chuckled. "Be safe on the way back, okay Susie?"

Having just gotten her shoes and jacket on, Susie gave Kris a quick but strong hug. the getsure clearly caught him off guard, as she felt the human freeze up in surprise. Even she wasn't quite sure why she had done it. Perhaps something about how concerned he was had touched her enough that she wanted to return the sentiment. Either way, she enjoyed the feeling. Touching human skin was an experience she was unfamiliar with, but the sensation of embracing the human's warm, soft body felt kind of nice.

"See you tomorrow, freak." She whispered in his ear, patting him on the back gently before releasing him. She could have sworn that she saw some redness in his face as she headed out the door, but wasn't quite familiar enough with humans to know what that meant. He definitely didn't seem upset, as she could see the barest hint of a smile on his face as he waved her goodbye.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

The day had gone much better than Kris had expected. Not just because he had managed to convince his mother to let him keep being friends with Susie, although that was the main goal for the day. The real highlight was the unexpected hug from the person he had come to consider as one of his two best friends.

His other best friend, the fluffy one, was on the other end of the phone with him. Kris had realized that he hadn't been to Asriel's since the night he fought Motorhead, and had decided to call him up after he had finally made it to the privacy of his own room.

"So she bought it?" Asriel's voice came from the phone. "I wouldn't have, if we're being honest. Then again I know what you've been up to way better than she does."

"I didn't get off easy, believe me. After Susie left and Ralesi was doing his own thing I got treated to an earful about fighting. Not to mention fighting with other stand users."

"She'll probably have a heart attack when she finds out about the dark world." Asriel's response was clearly meant as a joke, but Kris thought it might be a fairly accurate assessment. 

"Part of me wants to just tell my dad, at least. Only problem is that I know he'd tell my mom, and then she'd insist that I stay out of the fight."

"Is that such a bad thing, Kris? You and Susie have done a lot. Maybe it's time you let someone a bit more experienced have a crack at it. I know I'd enjoy a break from worrying about you."

"I can't quit now, Az." Kris groaned. "And I definitely can't let my dad or anyone else put themselves in harms way on my account."

"You're sure that your mom wouldn't let you fight? And that your dad would tell your mom what you're going through?"

"Absolutely." Kris replied with certainty. He liked to think he knew his parents well enough by now to be able to predict how they'd react to things. "So as much as I want to stop hiding things, I can't. My mom would never understand why I need to fight."

"I see..." Asriel murmured, seemingly mulling something over. "Well, whatever you do, remember that I'm rooting for you."

"You're the best, Az. I wish I could talk more, but I need to get to bed. I'll drop by sometime soon, okay?"

"No problem, Kris. See you around, bud." With that, Asriel hung up on the other end, allowing Kris to get ready for bed. For once, he was hoping he had another one of those odd dreams so that Noelle would have a chance to do something. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

Kris was awoken, as he was expecting, by Ralesi shaking him awake. However he quickly noticed that something must be wrong, as it was still dark outside. 

"Kris, Kris!" Ralesi was saying in the loudest whisper he could manage. "There's someone downstairs talking to your mom, and I don't think it's your dad. They're talking, so she must know them, but I figured you'd want to know about it."

Ralesi was right, this was pretty weird. Kris didn't know that his mom was the type to have strange visitors in the middle of the night. Bolting out of bed as quickly as his groggy body could manage, Kris threw the necessary clothes on before quietly opening his bedroom door. 

"Stay behind me, Ral." He ordered the darkener, who simply nodded nervously in reply, before putting his ear to the crack in his door to listen. 

Frustratingly, he could only make out his mother's voice, and not even full words at that. The other person must have been talking extraordinarily softly, a fact which made Kris all the more suspicious. 

He was in the process of slowly exiting his room so as to not make any noise, his mother's voice suddenly and abruptly stopped. This made Kris' heart shoot up into his throat and turned his careful footsteps into a sprint. 

Practically jumping down the stairs to reach the bottom, a look to his left and into the living room brought him face to face with what he had feared seeing the most. In the middle of the room was his mother, standing in front of a tall figure that was totally cloaked in a swirling cloud of pitch black flames. The only discernible feature Kris could make out was that the shape held an arrow in its right hand, the same sort of arrow that Frisk possessed, though the dark figure was quite a bit taller than the other human. The most horrific part of the whole scene was the fact that the stranger had firmly embedded the tip of the arrow into the shoulder of Kris’ mother. 

Kris froze in place at the sight before him, fully aware of what the arrow would do to someone who didn’t have the potential to become a stand user. Still, there was hope in his mind that his mother might survive. Such hopes were struck down with a metaphorical sledge-hammer when, after meeting Kris’ eyes with her own for one all too brief moment, Toriel’s body swiftly collapsed into a pile of dust. 

The shock of what had just occurred made Kris unable to act for a few moments as grief and rage battled for control of his mind, even though the dark figure was making its way over to the front door at a casual but quick pace.

Rage soon won out, and Kris summoned his stand and ran at the dark shape just as it was descending the steps of the front porch. 

The human's anger was a quiet one, and totally internalized. While most would have been shouting or vocalizing their hate in some form, Kris was saving that energy for when he was able to attack. It never once entered his mind that he had no idea what the figure's stand ability was, or if they even had one.

Just as he passed the still open front door and was about to launch his attack, the figure spoke. He couldn't recognize the voice, as it was distorted and garbled beyond the point of sounding like a person. In fact, Kris was certain that some electronic device was being used to make it unrecognizable.

"I'm sorry, Kris. I didn't mean for it to be this way." 

Right at that moment, the front door slammed into Kris' back with a force that sent him face first onto the pavement. He recovered his senses and got to his feet just in time to see the shape walking into some kind of tear in the air, through which Kris could see the interior of the King's castle in the dark world. 

"Just a little longer now and it will all be over. All your suffering, all your sacrifice...I promise it won't be for nothing."

Just like that, they were gone. so shocked had Kris been by everything that had occured that he hadn't thought to rewind. At least not until it was too late. By that time, there was nothing left to do except to go back inside and tell Ralesi to call the police. His hands were shaking too much to do it.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

It didn't take long for Undyne to arrive, and Kris was hardly surprised to see his father and Frisk both in tow. He had just been sitting in the living room while he waited for them, eyes fixed towards the pile of dust that had once been his mother with a blank stare. His mind had been "coping," if you could call it that, by trying to think of how he could have stopped this from happening, or even just how he might have stopped his mother’s killer from getting away. He had only managed to come to one solid conclusion in that time; the fact that the stranger had possessed an arrow could only mean one thing: that they had been “he who longs for heaven,” or “the boss” as some darkeners were apparently calling him these days.

Asgore's expression changed from one of worries to one of grief upon entering. No doubt he had been holding out hope that his former wife was still alive. Undyne went into work mode and started doing usual police routine after Asgore asked to be alone with Kris, though she was clearly as distraught as any of them. Frisk was the only one whose face stayed the same, though they wordlessly joined Undyne in her police work. 

"I'm sorry, son." Asgore sighed, sitting down in the chair next to Kris. "This is my fault." 

Kris could see tears welling up in his father's eyes as he took his own gaze away from the dust. He had little doubt that they both felt responsible for it, but Kris was sure that he held more blame for it than his father did. 

"I was here, dad." He replied in a choked voice. "I could have done more. I should have done more."

"Against the thing I know you must have faced, you couldn't have done a thing, son." The boss monster shook his head sadly. It wasn't meant as an insult or belittlement of Kris' abilities, but a simple statement of fact. Kris was in no mood to argue with this, of course.

"How do you know what I saw? I haven't even told you anything yet."

"If they came after my wife, I know who it must be. There is no other explanation in my mind." 

"I was pretty sure I knew who it was too. Maybe we're thinking of the same person."

"Who do you think it was, son? I'd like nothing more than to be wrong in my guess."

"Well, it's a long story." Kris sighed. "But I guess it's time I told you. Maybe if I had said something earlier, this wouldn't have happened."

Kris then went on to finally tell his father about the dark world with a heavy heart, but especially focusing on "he who longs for heaven," or "the boss" as Kris had come to know him. All his reasons for keeping his father in the dark were no longer reasonable. After all, his mom had known nothing and that hadn't saved her. 

His father didn't say anything through his whole explanation, seemingly taking the whole thing in stride. after he was done with that, he added in the details of the figure he had seen in the house that night, who he was sure had killed his mother.

Sometime during Kris' accounting of the past few weeks, Frisk wandered back in and listened intently along with Asgore. At the end of the tale, Kris' father had a solemn but determined expression on his face that seemed to indicate he had fit together all the puzzle pieces Kris had just handed him.

"I understand now." The boss monster stated as he rose from the chair. "I thought I could spare you from our family's curse, but evidently the age old unspoken deal of ignorance being bliss is no longer valid. It is finally time I told you of our family's burden, and the identity of your mother's killer."

"Think before you do this, Asgore." Frisk spoke up, their calm warning making Kris wonder how the information his father was considering sharing could be that grave. "If you're wrong, you'll have destroyed Kris' only chance at a life free of that evil."

"And if I'm right, which I'm sure I am, then that chance was destroyed as soon as he saw that intruder tonight!" Asgore was clearly angry. Not necessarily at Frisk for trying to urge caution, but he certainly didn't appreciate it. 

"Kris, the being that killed your mother is as close to pure evil that has walked the earth in millennia. It is neither human nor monster, it possesses no stand, and yet is powerful enough on its own to defeat all but the most experienced and battle hardened of stand users. Its capabilities with magic rival even a monster with a human soul, and its body has no one constant form, which would explain the nature of the figure you saw tonight. This thing, the Crawling Chaos, the haunter in the dark, the herald of the mad god has only ever gone by one name to our family...Nyarlathotep!" 

 

<\-- To be continued


	32. Sins of the Father

"Nyarlathotep."

The name sent a chill down Kris spine as well as stirred in him a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had heard that name somewhere before. 

"But if this..THING isn't a human or a monster, what exactly is he, dad?"

"That's a long story, son, but one you must know." Asgore replied with a heavy sigh. 

"Nowadays the history books speak of two races: humans and monsters. But we were not always the masters of the earth. Many millennia ago, so far back in history that most of the world has forgotten, this planet was under the iron fist of a race called the Old Ones. Greatest and cruelest among them was their king, who we call the Dark One. Human and monster alike suffered for the amusement of the Dark One and his ilk, for they hated us with a passion and let our races survive and multiply only for the purpose of slave labor and to be experimented upon by the Dark One's foul star spawn. 

The world was bleak and hopeless in those days, until the impossible happened. A meteor fell from the stars, surviving the atmosphere and landing on Earth intact. The Old Ones soon found that the rock was made of an unusual type of metal, and quickly began research to find out exactly what it could be used for. These scientific inquiries involved exposing their favorite guinea pigs to the metal in various ways, of course. This practice was ironically what ended up being their downfall. For while the metal did nothing to the Old Ones and their foul kin, it was capable of gifting humans And monsters with the power we both possess, Kris. The power of a stand!

This new ability took the Old Ones by surprise, and the first of our peoples to be granted stands broke free from their captors and fashioned the arrows. Soon, a full fledged revolt was in progress, for now the slaves of the Old Ones were suddenly able to possess powers to rival that of the beings they once thought of as gods. Yet not even the strongest among the stand users could challenge the Dark One or his ally, the King in Yellow. So it was that the first of my line began to delve deeper into the secrets of stands and their potential. His work paid off when, on the eve of the Dark One's triumph over the revolt, he achieved something that his descendants only know as "Heaven." The exact method he used was lost to time, though similar methods that claim to achieve the same results cropped up since then. But the fact remains that he became powerful enough to defeat the Dark One, forcing him into a state of hibernation within his capitol city and driving the King in Yellow into hiding.

And yet, even with all this power, the Dark One could not be killed. Instead he was buried in his own city beneath a great mountain, and a huge machine was constructed to continuously drain his power and keep him in hibernation. With that victory, the King in Yellow and the Dark One's other allies were forced into hiding, not to bother the world again for fear of the power that their former slaves now wielded. The world was finally free.

Yet all good things must come to an end. Time passed, and the memory of those horrific beings that once ruled us was easily forgotten, all recorded history of them made to vanish by those who wished never to think about them again. This is where our family came in, Kris. Our line alone has kept the memory of those days and the knowledge of the old ones alive for ages, battling against those who would see the Dark One return to rule an unsuspecting world. 

This is where Nyarlathotep comes in. Deep out in the reaches of space lives the Mad One: an insane, evil creature whose name we do not speak aloud. Nyarlathotep is his avatar, the manifestation of the one "sane" part of the thing's mind, if you can call it that. He enters our world to cause havoc and ruin, but inevitably falls into plotting with those who seek the return of the Dark One, and every time he comes into conflict with our bloodline. We have always defeated him before, ensuring that he returns without the memories of his previous incarnation, and thus never makes true progress towards his goal. But the cost...has never been cheap."

At this, Asgore finally took a breath and sat down, his features now weary despite the passion with which he had told the tale. 

"It used to be that he never attacked those who didn't know of him or the old ones, but clearly that has changed." 

"Dad, how do we even catch something like this? If he can do everything you say, then he could be anyone." Kris asked quietly, beginning to despair of having a chance for vengeance if his mother's killer was a shape shifter.

"Finding him has always been difficult. He tends to come to you instead of the other way around." Asgore shook his head sadly. "But while he may be able to see stands, he cannot replicate the stands of others. To that end, we can only really be sure that other stand users are who they say they are."

That gave Kris a little relief. At least that way he could be sure of Susie. Yet, he still couldn't help but feel a spark of anger at his father. He had kept this terrible secret from both his wife and son, who were both paying for it.

"Why...why did you never think to tell me about any of this? Did it never occur to you that this might be kind of important?" 

Asgore's expression was legitimately regretful, though this did little to quell Kris' growing frustration. 

"During that trip ten years ago I saw people become targets of the old ones merely for knowing of their existence. I didn't want that for you and Tori, and I naively believed that keeping silent would protect the both of you. Besides, even if you and Tori had believed me, which I think is unlikely, you would both have been looking over your shoulders for the rest of your lives. I don't think that's any way for a child to live."

"But if I had known -if mom had known- none of this might have happened! Looking over my shoulder all the time would have been a fine price to pay to avoid this! And why do you think we wouldn't have believed you? You're my dad for the Angel's sake! If I couldn't believe you, who was I supposed to listen to?"

His outburst obviously stunned his father. Kris hadn't raised his voice like this since he was a very, very young child, and even now wasn't doing it on purpose. 

"Kris...please believe me when I say that I only wanted the best for you and Tori. Exposure to these things changes you. It's part of why Tori thought I was so different when I got back. I didn't want you and Tori to have to be a part of that world if I could avoid it. Especially after I lost Gerson to the old ones."

Kris was listening, and as much as he felt it should have made sense, it didn't. He simply couldn't understand his dad's reasons for keeping all this from him for so long, even when he had learned to use his stand. He realized that if he stayed here much longer he was likely going to say something he regretted, something he didn't want nor need. 

"I'm going out." Kris declared, rising from his seat and heading for the door. "Alone."

"You sure that's a good idea considering what just happened?" Frisk asked. "I know you probably feel like you need to be alone, but walking around alone at night isn't safe."

"So what?" Kris replied quietly as he walked out the door. "Can't get much worse."

As he walked out of the house, Ralesi, who had been ushered out earlier and had been in Undyne’s company, made one last attempt to get him to stay.

“I...I don’t think it’s good for you to be alone right now, and not just because of the danger.” The darkener sounded meek and hesitant to speak, but sincere all the same. You need your friends, Kris, and we want to help you.”

At some level, Kris knew he was right. Secluding himself would only make him feel the grief more acutely. But he also didn’t feel like he could process it properly without some time alone. 

“I appreciate it, Ral, I really do. But I’m not going to get any better sticking around here. I need to be alone.”

With that, Kris walked past a concerned looking Undyne and into the darkness of the night. The church was his destination. He knew it would be quiet and empty there for a while. Nobody would bother him, and maybe a place like that could help him find some peace. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nobody wanted to deal with a police officer at their door first thing in the morning, least of all someone like Susie. And yet, Susie was woken up that morning by her mom telling her that Undyne was at the door. This was an hour before Susie usually got up for school, so she was quite put out and intended to give Undyne a piece of her mind when she got to the door. 

With a quick assurance to her mom that she hadn't done anything, at least not this time, she opened the door to confront Undyne with a groggy but angry glare. Her look was softened by Undyne's saddened expression. It quickly became clear to Susie that this visit wasn't about anything she had supposedly done. 

"Kris isn't going to tell you in his current state, but I think you should know. Toriel was...attacked last night. She didn't survive." Undyne's voice was heavy, slow, and deliberate with caution as she broke the news. It was the voice of a friend rather than that of an authority figure. "Kris told his dad that he wanted to be alone, but I don't know if that's healthy for him. He's up at the church if you want to see him."

All at once, Susie started imagining dozens of reasons why it was her fault. If only she had stayed there a while longer, or checked up on him in the middle of the night, or even slept over that night, maybe it wouldn't have happened. 

"What made you tell me?" She managed to ask, despite her stunned countenance.

"I get the impression you care for him." Undyne replied, her answer totally sincere. "He needs that right now. Nobody can go through a loss like this alone. Asgore did that for me when my dad passed. If it hadn't been for him I would have come out of that a much worse person. I don't know him well enough to help him and he's made it clear he doesn't want to see his dad. Maybe he'll be willing to see you."

"I'll head up to the church, then." Susie replied with a nod. "Thanks, Undyne."

"All I ask is that you give me a call if you think you've got a lead on the bastard that did this." With that, Undyne haded Susie a card. It looked official, and Susie could only assume that the number on it was Undyne's. 

"I take it Kris spilled the beans to his dad?"

"Yeah." Undyne nodded. "Not much point keeping it under wraps anymore, I guess. Right now we suspect that 'Boss' character to be Toriel's killer on account of the arrow that Kris saw the killer carrying."

"Gotcha. I'll call you if anything comes up." Susie assured Undyne. "And thanks."

"No problem. I gotta go check up on Asgore. He's not taking it too well either. See you around, Susie."

With that, Undyne took her leave, letting Susie rush off to the church mere moments afterward. It briefly occurred to her that it was a school day, but somehow she doubted that Kris would be going to school for a while. 

The building was totally empty. There wouldn't be a daily service for a few hours, giving someone plenty of time to be by themselves. Susie, however, had no intent of letting Kris sit alone in the back of the eerily quiet building. It didn't seem healthy no matter how she looked at it, even if it was an understandable response. 

"I just heard about it." She said quietly, sitting down next to Kris in his chosen pew. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner."

"Don't be." Kris mumbled in reply. "It's not as if I called you or anything. Maybe I should have."

"I get wanting to be alone. That was my go to defense mechanism when I was having a rough time up until I met you. Wasn't good for me, but I didn't exactly have anyone I felt I could trust back then."

"I thought being alone would help." Kris' voice was barely a whisper, betraying his sorrow with its low volume. "It hasn't, but I can't face my dad like this. I'm glad you're here, honestly. I should have called you earlier."

"It's not your fault, you know." Was the only thing Susie could think of to say, her own voice more choked than she had intended. "If you're blaming yourself, you shouldn't."

"It's hard not to. Especially when I was right there and couldn't...or just didn't do anything to stop it."

"We still don't even know what their stand ability is, Kris. You can't blame yourself for not winning the first time you fight someone like that."

"Yeah...their stand ability..." Kris' tone betrayed something that made Susie pause. It was as if he wasn't even sure that his mother's killer had been a stand user in the first place. 

"What do you mean, Kris? They had to have been a stand user, right?"

Kris turned his head to look at Susie, gazing deeply into her eyes as he pondered his next words. He wanted to tell her, to not make the same mistake he had been so angry at his father for. Yet, he couldn't deny the past. Gerson had known, he had fought alongside Asgore ten years ago and paid the price. If he told Susie about this, she wouldn't be content to let him face it alone. She would fight with him, try to help him shoulder his family's burden. And Kris had little doubt that she would pay the price. He couldn't bear the thought of that, so he decided, in that moment, to commit the same sin he had accused his father of.

"You're right, Susie. He has to be a stand user. Just...one I don't understand."

"We'll beat him, Kris. Together."

"The King first." Kris quickly said. "Once the Knight's gone, then we can decide what to do."

"Right. One thing at a time." Susie nodded. "We don't know where your mom's killer is anyway, and we don't have any clues. At least we know where to find the Knight."

Right at that moment, Kris heard the church's doors open. Turning around at the same time, he and Susie both saw Lancer enter the church with an urgency in his step. 

"Someone after you, Lancer?" Susie asked, calling out Red Buster just in case they were about to have an uninvited guest. 

"No, don't worry about that." Lancer panted, sounding out of breath. "But you two are gonna have some trouble soon. "The Knight's finally picked who he's gonna send after you guys next."

"Hurry up and spill the beans then, Lancer!" Susie told him excitedly. "It'd be nice to know who we're going up against next."

"Well...I can't exactly tell you their stand powers." Lancer mumbled. "These two keep that close to the chest."

"Two?" Kris was surprised that they were finally wising up and doing anything besides coming at them one at a time. It was smart, but not good news.

"Yeah, the Queen of Clubs and her son, the Ace of Clubs. The only reason I knew about it beforehand is that they're being as slow as possible about leaving the Dark World. Out of all the Knight's people, they like him the least. In fact there's rumors that they're working with 'He who Longs for heaven'. In fact, I think they were the ones who started calling him 'The Boss'."

"So they'd rather not be fighting us, is what you're saying?" Susie asked, looking a bit confused by the whole thing. 

"Yeah, but the Knight has some way of making them do what he wants. Good thing for him too, because the Queen of Clubs' stand is supposedly invincible. From what I hear, not even the Knight could beat her in a straight up fight."

"These types of people always think they're invincible until they meet us!" Susie scoffed. 

"That's the thing. This time, they're not the ones saying it. Everyone else in the Dark World is. Guess that don't matter though. They'll be here tomorrow whether they're invincible or not."

"Thanks for the heads up, Lancer." Kris said, managing to get up from the pew for the first time in hours. "We'll be ready."

"Say, Lancer..." Susie's voice took on a hesitant tone, as if she was about to ask for something difficult. "Do you happen to know if your dad ever meets with 'The Boss'?"

"Yeah...I think he does. Why do you ask?"

"Well, we're real grateful to the Boss for giving me my stand and everything, and we'd really like to know who he is so that we can...uh...thank him properly."

Part of Kris wanted to stop her. At some level he knew that this was dangerous for Lancer, but his anger at his mother's killer won out and kept him silent. 

"Why would you need to do that? I'm sure if he thought it would help for you to know who he was, he'd tell you himself. For whatever reason, he seems to think that would jeopardize his plans to get rid of the Knight."

"Lancer, I'll be straight with you." Kris began. "The Boss isn't our friend, no matter how much we both want the Knight gone. Last night, he killed my mom, Lancer, and I need to know who he is."

It was wrong, and Kris knew it. He shouldn't ask this of someone who was practically a child like Lancer, but a desire for revenge is a powerful thing, and it had a firm grip on Kris in that moment. 

Lancer's face instantly fell. Where before he was energetic and eager, now he simply looked stunned and sad. 

"I-I'm sorry, Kris...I didn't know..."

"Don't worry about it, Lancer, you couldn't have changed anything." Kris assured the darkener. "But now you understand why we need to know who the Boss is. That way we can stop him before he does any more damage to us or the people we care about."

"I getcha, Kris..." Lancer said sadly. "I'll find out who he is, don't worry! You guys have done a lot to help free my dad from the Knight, and I owe you something back."

"Just be careful, Lancer. The Boss is dangerous." Kris warned.

"I know, but I'm the King's son, and that's gotta count for something, right? Anyway, I better get on it. I think I might be able to catch the Boss tonight, actually. The Ace of Clubs is a good pal of mine, and I think he and his mom are meeting the Boss tonight."

"Lancer, we'd rather you live than learn who the Boss is." Susie said with a tone that Kris would almost characterize as sisterly. "If it looks risky, don't go."

"Dontcha worry, Sus!" Lancer called as he left the church. "If there's one thing I can do, it's get away. Nothing's faster than my stand!"

And just like that, Lancer was gone again, having seemingly got right into his new task of hunting for the boss with little hesitation. Kris would never be able to understand him, but he was good to have around. 

"Never a dull moment, huh?" Susie remarked wryly. 

"Seems like it. Guess we better get ready for tomorrow, huh?" 

Strangely enough, having a new threat on the horizon had let Kris process his anger at his father. He still felt the emptiness of his mother's passing, but if he didn't pull himself together, Susie was going to pay for his lack of focus when they had to fight tomorrow. He hadn't moved past it, but at least he could bury it for Susie's sake.

"We should probably practice with our stands to make sure we're ready for tomorrow. I don't think anyone will blame us for skipping school today, all things considered."

"Skipping class used to be a fun thing." Susie mused. "Now we're doin' it because we might die tomorrow. You sure you're up for this, Kris? We can get your dad to help us out this time. Maybe you need a day to relax and...you know, deal with stuff."

"I have to be. We've never fought two at once before, so I can't afford to let myself slip now. Trust me, I'll manage."

Susie seemed concerned about him, but wasn't about to object at this point. They still had an enemy to fight and that was enough for Kris.

"Susie, thanks for coming to check on me." Kris said as they left the church. "It did help."

"Anytime, freak." She replied with a smile and a relieved sigh. "I'm here for you, just remember that."

With that, the two of them took their leave of the church to first brief Kris' father about the situation before using the rest of the day to train. Said training was an entirely non-painful endeavor, and Kris could tell Susie was being gentler with him than usual. He wasn't about to complain of course, as it made the training more fun than rigorous. As much as he wasn't about to ask for that, he did need it. Probably more than he actually needed practice with his stand. Still, they both broke a sweat, and it did help Kris remember the muscle memory and instinct associated with fighting that the events of the last night had made him forget. He was going to have a lot to process after the battle tomorrow was over, but for now he could bury those feelings, for Susie's sake. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that night, in a remote corner of the Dark World, Lancer pulled his motorcycle up to the castle where Ralesi once made his home. He still wasn't sure how he felt about the fallen prince. On one hand, he was now helping Kris and Susie with the task of freeing his dad from the Knight, but he was also a claimant to his dad's throne. He might be a problem once the Knight was taken care of, but for now he probably wasn't worth worrying about. 

Walking quietly up to the door of the main castle, Lancer could hear faint voices coming from within. Dulac had been telling the truth after all. Not that lancer had doubted his friend, but he had heard that the Boss liked to change meeting places and such on a whim if he felt they were unsafe. 

Creeping up to the closed doors, he put an ear to the crack beneath them and began to listen.

"I can delay no longer. We must go to face your champions tomorrow." 

This first voice belonged to the Queen of Clubs, Dulac's mom. Lancer had fond memories of the few times he had been able to visit her. She always made him the best cookies.

"I, for one, have been awaiting this day for a long while!" Lancer recognized Dulac's voice in an instant. It was like all those Knights in cheesy movies about Knights in shining armor. 

"Keep yourself under control, son." The Queen of Clubs chided. "This is no joyous task we have before us. By all rights we should be their allies, not their executioners."

"I actually called you both here to talk to you about that. I know that everyone says your stand is unstoppable, but I'm sure that Kris can find a way around it. He just needs...a little time, you know?" 

This voice had to be the Boss, and even at this distance Lancer could swear that it was familiar, but from where?

"Do you mean for me to go easy on him?" The Queen of Clubs asked. "You know that means the death of my husband."

"That's not what I'm suggesting. See, Kris will have people with him when you go to fight him. I think that after a demonstration of your stand's ability, he'll agree to fight you one on one at a later time, especially if you've got someone he cares about on the ropes."

"You do realize that will change nothing, right? Your champion is impressive, I'll admit, but he has even less of a chance alone than he does with his allies. I'm sorry, but he dies tomorrow unless he defeats me in the first engagement. If he can't do that, how can we ever expect him to take down the Knight?"

"He won't disappoint you, I promise. Just give him one chance." 

The Boss' tone was pleading, and it must have been convincing, because the Queen of Clubs was silent for a few long moments before replying. "Fine." She sighed. "I will give him this chance as you request, as a favor for a friend."

The Boss sighed in relief at her answer. "Thank you. I promise this is the right thing to do. Kris can win, I'm sure of it. Just remember not to tell him or his allies who I am, or this whole plan goes up in smoke."

"Of course we wouldn't!" Dulac insisted, sounding indignant at the suggestion that he might. "We would be throwing away years of work and ensuring the usurper's reign."

"Which begs the question, who exactly is that standing outside the door and how did they find us?" 

Just as the Boss finished his sentence, and before Lancer had any time to get his stand out, the doors of the castle flung themselves open. The doors hit Lancer on the way and knocked him firmly to the floor. By the time he had regained his bearing, the Boss was standing over him. It was now that Lancer finally got a good look at his face, and realized exactly why he wanted to keep his identity from Kris. 

"Oh, Lancer." The Boss groaned. "You really are too helpful for your own good." 

Lancer quickly found himself pinned to the ground by a humanoid, crystalline figure. Its body shimmering with the colors of the rainbow in a mesmerizing fashion. He figured that this must be the Boss' stand,

"Hey! I'm the King's son! You have to let me go!" 

Lancer's hasty objections only made the Boss shake his head. 

"You've heard my voice and seen my face. You're too dangerous to let go, Lancer."

The finality of those words almost made the young darkener's heart stop right there and then. The Boss wouldn't REALLY kill him, would he?

“Stop!” Dulac shouted as he hurried over to the Boss’ side, his portly frame obvious even with his shiny armor covering his body. “Surely Lancer doesn’t need to be sacrificed for the cause, my lord. He’s far too young for that!”

“Kris can’t win so long as he’s around.” The Boss replied. “See, the only way to get rid of the Knight is to kill the Spade King, and I don’t think Kris is ready to make our friend Lancer an orphan. If I want him to win, I need to make that concern...no longer a factor. Honestly, I was planning to get rid of Lancer sooner or later. I was just...having a hard time bringing myself to do it.”

The Queen of Clubs soon made her way over as well, putting a comforting hand on her son’s shoulder. “Much must be lost if we wish to throw off the tyrant. Let our liberator deal with this spy as he sees fit.”

The darkener almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It felt like having his death sentence signed right before his eyes. 

"I promise this won't hurt at all.” The Boss said, turning his attention back to Lancer. “You'll just feel a little prick, and then you'll go to sleep for a very long time, okay?"

The Boss' voice now carried a strangely soothing tone. If Lancer hadn't been panicking at the idea of his imminent demise, he might have believed that everything really would be fine. 

"I promise, when I make my perfect world, I'll give you the best dad a kid could ever ask for, Lancer. Angel knows you deserve it."

Then, he felt the little prick the Boss had warned him about. And then he felt nothing more.

<\-- To be Continued.


End file.
